


I Spy

by CavalierQueen



Category: NCIS
Genre: F/M, Politics, Sibling Incest (referenced), Spanking, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-09-05
Updated: 2010-09-05
Packaged: 2017-10-11 12:19:20
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 46,655
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/112342
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CavalierQueen/pseuds/CavalierQueen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>At the body of a dead marine, Gibbs meets a woman who knows Jenny and Ziva and is somehow tied to all of their lives.Reviews would be really nice. Two more chapters before completed.<br/>NCIS - Rated: T - English - Romance/Crime - Chapters: 19 - Words: 49,557 - Reviews: 9 - Updated: 7-24-09 - Published: 7-10-08 - Leroy Jethro Gibbs & Ari H.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Spy

Title: **I Spy**  
Category: TV Shows » NCIS  
Author: CavalierQueen  
Language: English, Rating: Rated: T  
Genre: Romance/Crime  
Published: 07-10-08, Updated: 07-24-09  
Chapters: 19, Words: 49,557

  


* * *

**Chapter 1: Magnificat joins the scene**

* * *

I Spy

Chapter 1

Magnificat Joins the Scene

Gibbs was pissed. He always gets pissed when he doesn't know what is going on. An emergency phone call to Director Shepard, and the next thing he knows she is yelling his team's dispatch from the top of the stairs. His team was being dispatched to the site of a murdered marine. The murdered marine was his job, but whoever had called it in was a mystery, although Jen had begged his patience that all would be disclosed. Not only that, but she was going with them to the site in question. That never happened, and it could only interfere with his investigation. At least she took her own car.

As they were loading their gear, the Director warned him the person who had found the body was still on site, had cleared the area already, and was armed. Great, just great. Someone is going to get shot out there if this turns into the wild west. He just got more pissed, taking it out on his car, slamming the door rattling the car to the screws, and then he did it again before taking off behind the NCIS van. Jenny was following behind his car, and took Ziva with her.

Gibbs was the first one through the door as usual. His gun was out and he was seeking a target, his team behind him. She sat in the overstuffed leather chair with her gun directed at the lead man, with her peripheral vision watching the rest of the team. He stopped cold where he could still take cover, watching her body language thinking she was not intending to fire. She stared down her gun into his ice blue eyes, while he stared back into her emerald green ones. He saw a slight smirk in her smile when she addressed him.

"Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs, I presume? And your ace team behind you."

Jenny spoke from behind the crowd of agents, warning the woman "Magnificat, don't bait the bear. His bite is definitely worse than his bark, which is pretty bad itself."

The woman Jenny had called Magnificat was still looking into Agent Gibbs eye's, she thought she could drown in them, but heard the warning and laughed, dropping her gun to her side, causing the other guns in the room to also drop. Every man in the room thought her laugh was the most magical thing they had ever heard. It tinkled like crystal blowing on a wind chime.

Ziva spoke up, addressing the stranger in the chair, putting her gun away. "It's about time you reappeared on this continent Magnificat. It's been a while." As Ziva moved forward, the woman they called Magnificat put her gun at her back waist and moved towards her longest known friend and gave her a hug. Jenny moved forward as well and joined in the hug with the other two women. "_Shalom ve a hava chaverah (Peace and Love my friend). _Jenny, it has been so long my friend. I'm glad to be home and see you, but not under these circumstances."

Di'Nozzo gave a big leer watching the three women hugging together. "Oh man, this is going to provide fantasy material for a while. Mmmm." Gibbs gave him a big slap on the head.

"Di'Nozzo, cover the body forensics. The room has already been compromised, so maybe the sorority sisters can take it outside. Can one of you tell me what the hell is going on? We have a dead body of a Marine laying in the floor, and you three are having some kind of girly reunion. Ziva get the director away from her, she might be dangerous. She may have killed this marine."

Before Ziva could respond, Jenny spoke up. "Jethro, 'Magnificat' is indeed very dangerous, with or without her gun. But she did not kill this Marine. And she will not hurt me or Ziva. Or you for that matter, except maybe to break your heart."

'Magnificat' brought out a pad of paper, holding up her hand to Jenny and Gibbs. She used the pad to ask if anyone spoke sign language, and Gibbs signed that he did.

'Magnificat' started signing and following up with writing for Jenny and Ziva's benefit. "Agent Gibbs. This Marine is my brother. We both have separate covers and names so that our safety is at least a little more secure. Jenny and I know each other from various ops and Ziva from Moussad training and time spent in Israel. This apartment is probably bugged, maybe even optically, so we need to watch what we say. By the way, my real name is Faith. 'Magnificat' is one of my cover names. Jenny meant what she said about releasing my cover information to you and your team, as well as my brother's to help you and your team. I don't need to be a block to your investigation. But being under surveillance here and releasing my brother's and my cover information, could cause my cover to be easily be blown if it hasn't been already. It's very dangerous for me. I can help you more back at MTAC."

"It's ok Jethro, I trust her, and I'll work out the classification issues." Faith trusted Jenny without question, and knew she would move heaven and earth to work out the information sharing without getting her killed. "By the time you and your team return to NCIS, we'll be ready to talk. Ok? We'll head back to headquarters now, and wait for your return. "

'Magnificat' thought this might be a problem. Signing once again, she started to talk with Gibbs. "If someone realizes the director came here and has been listening, it may be an opportunity for them to try to harm her in some way. I don't know her driver, who I assume is also her body guard, so I can't judge how good he is. What do you think?"

"Are you as good as they all say you are?" Gibbs signed back.

"I'm at least as good as Ziva. I am very, very good. But I also have not been back in this country for a decade. I will yield to your judgment."

"I will send Di'Nozzo with you. Try not kill him."

"Why would I want to kill him?" Magnificat asked.

"Spend any amount of time with him and you are either charmed by him or annoyed. I'll consider it a test of character as to which one you turn out to be."

'Magnificat' smirked at Gibbs. "Well, I hope I pass your test, Agent Gibbs. He doesn't strike me as my type, but then one never knows."

Gibbs gave her an ice blue glare, before turning away to get started processing the rooms.

TBC

* * *

**Chapter 2: Magnificat leads to Faith**

* * *

I Spy

Chapter 2

Magnificat leads to Faith

The team convened around the table in the director's office, the body having been turned over to Ducky and the other forensic evidence sent down to Abby's lab. Obviously, neither of them were present around the table. Their guest hadn't arrived yet either, and the director took the opportunity to explain what they were going to be covering, and the level of need to know they were discussing. The information was at a significantly higher classified level than anyone else in the room, except maybe Gibbs and the director. Jenny explained that 'Magnificat' was the code name for Faith Worthington. When 'Magnificat' arrived they were going to be invited to introduce themselves around the table. Ziva and Jenny were completely comfortable with the new addition and patiently waited their friend. Gibbs was still pissed off, or at least that was what he was trying for. McGee was open to the newest person, and Di'Nozza, well he was looking for his 'in' to the new 'girl'.

There was a knock on the door and it opened with 'Magnificat' entering, initially looking like a deer in the headlights with all the eyes in the room turning towards her. Her chest was rising and falling fast, showing her anxiety at the appraisal of those she had just met. She had removed her leather jacket and that left just her low cut jeans and tight fitting low cut tank top. Her makeup had obviously been repaired, and her eyes were red. She'd also taken the time to brush her long thick bright auburn hair before joining the group. Jenny quickly assessed the situation, knowing that 'Magnificat' had finally broken down over Michael's death. She had found the team to turn over the responsibility for his body and finding out about his death and she took a few minutes to let her own responsibility go. "Faith, welcome to our meeting. I know you are grieving your brother, but we need your help to find out what happened. Please sit down and join us. We need you. Michael needs you."

A tear fell down Faith's cheek, but she quickly wiped it off. She moved into the room and Gibbs stood up and pulled out the chair next to him for her to sit in. It was a very thoughtful gesture and Faith smiled a slight, but tender smile at him. "Thank you, Agent Gibbs."

"How about just calling me Gibbs? That is what everyone calls me."

She nodded her head, not trusting her voice quite yet, and in sign language told him "Thank you for being so kind. I guess you aren't pissed off anymore?"

He signed back, enjoying that they shared a private mode of communication the others couldn't understand. "You are welcome. And no, not pissed anymore, but don't tell anyone. Wouldn't want to ruin my grumpy old man reputation."

Faith smiled broader and remained quiet.

Jenny explained what her plan was, and asked each team member to introduce themselves and what their specialty was. Then they moved onto discussing Michael's file. There wasn't much information available. His specialty seemed to be bioterrorism weapons, the flow to and from countries into the United States.

Gibbs asked who Michael's current liaison officer was and decided that he and Faith would speak with him first. Di'Nozzo and Ziva were going to talk to a friend of the family that Faith had suggested, and McGee was going to work on Michael's computer and laptop. They had a plan of attack. And they hadn't even covered her dossier.

Leave it to Di'Nozzo to point that out. "Now that we have a plan Boss, are we going to learn about our mystery woman over there? Beautiful she is, as well as dangerous if what everyone says is true. If she is going to be watching our back, we should know about her."

"Interesting as to what your concern is, Di'Nozzo. Are you more concerned with her beauty, or how dangerous she might be? Or perhaps because she is a dangerous beauty and she might hurt you." Gibbs said.

"Boss, you are the one going out with her in the field. What experience does she have? Is she just about dressing up in sexy clothes and seducing information out of people, or can she actually hold her own in a fire fight?"

Jenny interrupted the conversation. "Gentlemen, we said we would go over Faith's profile, and we will. Now. I need to reiterate that this is completely need to know and should not be divulged to anyone under any circumstances, and this includes Ducky and Abby as well.

Gibbs' phone rang interrupting the meeting. He took the call since it was from Ducky. Ducky had established COD, so Gibbs put the phone on speaker. "Jethro, this unfortunate man had been tortured for at least three days. They used chemical torture techniques, including killing and reviving him repeatedly. They also cut his genitalia repeatedly with very fine cuts to the point it is nothing but ground meat. It would have been beyond excruciating. The poor man would never have been the same had he survived." Faith's hand went out to touch Gibb's arm, the nearest source of comfort. As she listened silently to the chilling last days of her brother's life, she needed to touch something that provided reassurance whether he knew it or not. Ducky continued, "Even with the killing and reviving and what must have been the constant agony of chemicals and cutting, he withstood the cruelty for at least three days. However, the actual COD was the use of his suicide pill. He died of cyanide poisoning." All the men in the room had crossed their legs and made a face of pain when Ducky was describing the injuries.

Gibbs cleared his throat and continued the conversation with Ducky. "He had a cyanide pill hidden in his teeth? He must have been a special ops spy to have something like that at his disposal. Thank you, Ducky. Keep us posted on anything else you find. Did you send blood samples down to Abby to identify the chemicals used?"

"Yes, I'm walking them down right now. I'll keep you posted if I learn anything else. Good bye."

Everyone turned and looked at Faith, watching for her reaction. She looked to Jenny and asked if a short break would be possible. She'd like to be there for the review of her dossier but she needed a few minutes. Jenny, of course, agreed, pain in her own eyes for her friend's tragic and painful loss.

Faith stood up, and when she did surprisingly enough so did Gibbs out of respect. As Faith left the room, Ziva looked at Gibbs and Jenny and with a slight dip of her head she followed Faith out of the room.

Gibbs went on a coffee run, Jenny went to follow up on what was happening outside of the meeting, and the others were left to talk amongst themselves. Gibbs' behavior towards Faith, and the elements of the current torture scenario were the main topics of conversation.

Faith walked carefully to the women's restroom, little used since there were so few women in the building, for which at this time she was glad. She could sense Ziva behind her and appreciated her friend's kindness. The bile that she had been pushing down since the conference call was threatening to erupt in the next few seconds so she threw herself into the first stall and proceeded to vomit all her breakfast and coffee from the last few hours. Ziva joined her in the stall, and held back her hair while she continued to throw up bile and finally just dry heaved. Once she stopped she sank back against the cold tile wall with Ziva at her side.

Somewhat breathlessly and with a raw voice she thanked Ziva for her help.

"Of course, what else would a friend do? You stay here and I will go get you a toothbrush and toothpaste, along with a hair brush. Is your makeup in your purse?"

"Thank you Ziva. I'll start repairing the damage to my makeup until you return."

Ten minutes from the time she had left the room, Faith returned alone. Ziva had left her to her own clean up after providing the toothbrush and toothpaste and rejoined everyone else. Faith sat in the same chair as before, Gibbs pulling it out for her again, which she noticed raised more than a few eyebrows in the room. A coffee sat in front of her and she was pleasantly surprised that once tasted, she found it to be exactly to her liking, very sweet and creamy. While everyone else in the room was staring at her, Gibbs was not and given his own coffee brand cup, she knew he was the magician with the coffee.

Faith cleared her still raw throat and addressed the group. "I apologize for having to call a break in the meeting. This is extremely difficult for me due to the familial closeness of the victim. I do have some suggestions as to what exigent circumstances would have led Michael to use his cyanide pill, if you want to hear them, before we move on to my own dossier which is equally as ruthless as his."

"What do you think would have led him to use his pill? And why would he have a pill in the first place?" Gibbs asked.

Faith took a deep breath and a swallow of the wonderful coffee before answering. "We both have pills as a last resort if we were captured and did not feel we would be able to withstand the torture or were

about to give up key information. We had both been through extensive torture resistance prior to deployment. He went out under Marine cover in covert ops. I went out in the diplomatic core, with the intention of gathering information, and the occasional assassination. His was a more obvious cover, mine was significantly less obvious and therefore less dangerous. No one ever expects a rich socialite to be a deadly assassin."

"On one of our rare personal visits we talked about the pills. I was going to throw mine away, and he was encouraging me to keep it, as he was. He said if he was ever caught he was confident that he could withstand the torture, but was afraid that if the bad guys were searching for me he might inadvertantly give me or Katie up and he wouldn't be able to live with that. He would rather die if he felt that he was putting us at any risk. If the people who did this knew about me, even just my code name, he would have taken the pill if he was afraid of giving me up. It is possible that under such intense pain he referred to my real name as opposed to my cover. That would be his worst fear, that while in intense pain he might be the one to blow my cover. Katie BTW is my friend, assistant, and housekeeper. Michael and Katie were in a relationship."

Gibbs summarized, "Ok, sounds like he might have taken the pill in order to protect you, which may mean the people we are looking for are actually after you."

"Yeah, that is a possibility."

"Any ideas? Have you collected any information recently that would cause something like this?"

Faith looked at Jenny and then at Gibbs. Jenny and Gibbs then looked at each other, and without ever speaking a word, the three of them made a decision. "We will take all of this under advisement. Let's continue with the _overview_ of the dossier in question."

Pictures went up on the screen and newspaper articles of events, bombs, and assassinations showed across the large screen. Faith's cover of rich socialite wasn't much of a cover after all. She really was rich and she really was a socialite. It opened doors for her diplomatically, and men were easy marks in their need to prove their importance by sharing information with a beautiful woman. Gibbs turned and looked at her. "Did you ever sleep with anyone for information?" His voice sounded angry.

Faith just gave him a small smile, yet another tear sliding down her cheek. "No, Gibbs. I never slept with anyone I didn't want to. I didn't whore myself out for information that our country might have needed. I did kill, up close and from far away. My latest kill count is 22. When we find the people who did this to my brother, that number will rise. And then I am retiring from the spy business. I chose 'Magnificat' as my cover name so that it provided me some kind of grounding, some sort of high road when there was no high road to be taken. I am far from proud of what I have done in service for my country. I don't even know how the information I provide gets used, if at all. I'm a weapon of beauty and marksmanship that convinces important people to share their secrets. And if they are lucky they get to live. Not very attractive is it?"

* * *

**Chapter 3: Faith lets Magnificat go**

* * *

I Spy

Chapter 3

Faith Lets Magnificat Go

Half an hour later Gibbs was escorting Faith down to the forensics lab before the two of them left to find Michael's CO. Gibbs and Faith were the only ones in the elevator and rode down to the basement in uncomfortable silence. He was still mad about her job, and wondering who she had slept with. Faith was convinced that now that he knew who, or rather what, she was he would no longer want her around. No more pulling out the chair, no more perfect coffees, no more shared small smiles. She had to admit to herself she was disappointed. In just a few hours she had really grown to like him, rough edges and all. Before the elevator reached its destination, Gibbs, the tension suddenly gone from his voice and body, told Faith that she was going to meet Abby, and that Abby knew sign language.

"Thanks for the heads up. I thought it was our own private thing."

Gibbs looked at her, and offered her a small, tender smile. "It is, but she can read it as well, so just be warned."

As he stepped out of the elevator, this whirling dervish of black, red, and white threw herself in his arms. "Gibbs!" Faith's eyebrows shot up in surprise at the intimacy between the two.

After her hug, he pushed her away slightly and smiled at her energetic greeting. "Abbs, what do you have for me?"

"Gibbs, aren't you going to introduce your new friend? How rude. I'm Abby. I do the team's forensic work." Abby talked a mile a minute and had clearly had too much caffeine.

"Hi Abby. My name is Faith."

"I LOVE that name. I have a tattoo of Faith in Chinese characters."

"That's funny. I have one too, but mine are in Hebrew. They say Faith, Hope, and Love."

"Wow! Hebrew, huh? You don't see that very often. Where are they?" Faith smiled at Abby's interest and enthusiasm and couldn't help but show her what she wanted to see. She lifted her tight tank top to expose her flat and tan abs. The pattern of tattoos started below her belly button and continued downward.

"Sorry you can't see the whole tat. It travels pretty far north." She heard Gibbs choke on his coffee behind her and gave Abby a conspiratorial grin.

"Hey I totally understand. I have 18 tats and some a person would have to be very up close and personal to see."

"You look like you've been in the Tattoo superbowl. I'm kinda jealous. I have to be careful about where I put tattoos because of my job."

"Children, children? Can we get back to work please? Abby, what do you have for me? Anything on the samples that Ducky brought down to you? What about that tape?"

Faith jerked her head up and looked at Gibbs. "What tape?" She had been concerned about the chemical results. She was really shocked by the idea of a tape.

Gibbs looked at her, pulling her close to him. "We found a tape on your brother's body. Abby is the only one who has seen it yet, so I can't tell you what it is about."

"You are this Marine's sister, Faith Worthington." When both Gibbs and Faith turned to look at her, she explained, "You are mentioned on the tape. A lot. Of course, they talk about 'Magnificat,' not Faith. Gibbs, she can't see this tape. Tony and Ziva need to, maybe even McGee, but she should NOT see this tape_. I_ don't want to see the tape again."

Faith looked at Gibbs' face, into those ice blue eyes, and knew she couldn't see the tape. He pulled her into his arms, encircling her tiny body that had been through so much today. Without letting go, he asked Abby to call Tony, Ziva, and McGee down to view the tape. There would only be one showing, and it started in three minutes. He pulled Faith into Abby's office, grabbed a pillow and blanket and helped her onto the futon. He also dug around the desk and found a pair of headphones and left the music off but they were sound blocking so that would help. He stayed sitting on the side of the futon stroking Faith's hair trying to soothe away the panic in her eyes.

"It's going to be terrible isn't it?"

"Yeah, probably so. But you aren't going to see or hear it, and no one is going to tell you about it. I want you to stay in here until I come get you ok? No sneaking out, right?"

"Ok. I'll stay put. I'm not sure my mental health could take seeing it anyway. I'm so tired, I'll try to take a nap. Please don't leave without me. You promise?"

"I promise. Now, try to rest."

There was a gentle knock on the door and Abby stepped in. "Gibbs, everyone is here. And Faith, here is Bert. He can keep you company. "

"Thanks Abby. Don't let Gibbs leave without me, ok?"

"No problem. He actually listens to me, and I think you might be getting that distinction as well."

ISPY ISPY ISPY ISPY ISPY ISPY ISPY

Thirty minutes later, Gibbs came back into Abby's office. Faith had fallen into a light doze holding onto Bert tightly, but woke up as soon as Gibbs came through the door and closed it. She noticed he was considerably paler then earlier and his ice blue eyes seemed to be on fire. Silently, he sat next to her and reached for her hair. Stroking her hair and getting his fingers tangled in its curly length seemed to comfort him. She figured she could stay there all night with his fingers buried in her hair. Faith just watched his face and eyes and waited for him to speak.

After several minutes, Gibbs finally decided to talk. "The tape was a compilation of what your brother went through over the course of three days. It came down to 30 minutes of video. I don't ever want you to see it. It was the Chinese who had your brother. And based on what we heard, we need to keep you under 24 hour protection. They are still referring to you as 'Magnificat.' And Katie, your friend and housekeeper, she needs protection too."

Faith reached out for Gibbs' hand before she asked "The Chinese? You are sure? "

"Apparently, they think you made off with information on some of their top secrets and some lesser crimes, as well as humiliating one of their star diplomats. Why? Are you thinking of something specific?"

Faith swallowed hard, choking back the bile. "I might know something. I might have gotten my brother killed. Can we talk about it while we are in the car? I need to assimilate this before I share it with you."

"Ok, we'll wait until we are in the car. In the meantime, you and I are like glue. I'm with you 24/7. Other members of the team will also be providing protection detail, and the best part, since you have diplomatic immunity, the secret service is required to provide protection as well. So, don't go quitting your job yet, ok?"

Faith was glad to see that along with his planning and talking, tangling his hands in her hair, and holding her hand, his color was coming back and his eyes were reflecting something other than anger.

"Gee Gibbs, 24/7. Can I take you that much?"

"Well, I hope so because that is the drill soldier. I plan to keep you alive, and I never fail my missions."

Faith ran her fingers through his silver and black hair as she stood in front of where he still sat on the futon. "I think we'll manage Gibbs. There is no one I would rather be stuck like glue to." Her voice carried a deep sound of sadness underlying the teasing.

He placed his hands around her waist and pulled himself up from the futon. "Glad to hear that Faith. I am not going to let anyone hurt you or let anything come between us. Let's go meet the rest of the team outside. They are quite shaken from viewing the tape, but we aren't going to talk about the tape anyway. Ok?"

Faith nodded and Gibbs opened the door to Abby's office and they walked out together, and remained almost touching when they came to a stop in front of the rest of the group. Ziva came over to Faith and hugged her tightly.

Di'Nozzo's smart mouth just couldn't help saying something about a group girl hug, for which he was rewarded with a head slap from Gibbs. "Oh come on boss, two beautiful women hugging each other in their tight clothes. What more could a man ask for to begin a fantasy? Imagine them naked…"He got yet another head slap, this one harder than most, making him see spots. "Got it Boss. Shutting up now."

"Tony,let's not forget we are both armed many times over and could hurt you without ever leaving a mark. So stuff it Tony." Ziva was pissed, especially after watching that awful film. "Why can't you ever even try to be sensitive? I don't think anyone in this room is in the mood for your pornographic fantasies."

"Hey, I'm just trying to lighten the mood ZEE-va. "

" You are both going to get some discipline if you don't shut up now. Take your constant bickering to the car with you so I don't have to hear it. Where are you going?"

"We are going to check in with Katie, the friend Faith gave us the name of, and to set up secret service security detail."

"Let me know when that is going to start. We are off to interview Michael's CO, swing by the town house and my house to pick up some clothes. We'll be staying at her place at the Army-Navy Club until the town house is ready. McGee- tomorrow I want the town house and the Army-Navy room swept for bugs. We'll be making funeral arrangement for Arlington Cemetery this afternoon as well. It will probably be set for a couple days out. Di'Nozzo and Ziva, go by Michael's place and pick up his dress blues, including shoes and medals. Remember the room is likely bugged. Abby- you get me the chemicals used. I want it by tomorrow. Anything else? Good, call me if you get anything. See everyone tomorrow morning."

And like a regular army, everyone disappeared to complete their missions. Gibbs and I waited until everyone was gone. "How armed are you Faith?"

"I'm carrying two different guns, ammo for each and an assortment of knives and throwing stars. Think that is enough?" She answered him with a smirk.

"Ok." He took a big breath at the enormity of the arsenal he couldn't even see. " I think that is plenty. I need to stop at my desk and get my gun and backup, and then we can get going. Don't tell Di'Nozzo how much you carry. It will just feed his active fantasy life."

"What about your fantasy life Gibbs? Does it do anything for you?"

* * *

**Chapter 4: Faith comes clean**

* * *

I Spy

Chapter 4

Faith Comes Clean

Gibbs held the car door for Faith as she climbed in. He found himself unashamedly trying to figure out where all the weapons were on her small body under the very tight clothes. He'd think there was nothing that could be concealed there.

"See something you like, Gibbs?"

"You know I do. But right now, I'm just trying to figure out where all the weapons are."

"Well, maybe later you can go on a treasure hunt, Special Agent Gibbs. How would that work for you?"

Gibbs closed the door and walked around to the driver side of the car and got in, checking out Faith as she sat waiting for his response.

His voice was gravelly and deep when he finally responded. "You shouldn't make promises you don't intend to keep, my little spy."

"But that is a big part of my job, sir."

"Don't tease the grumpy old man, don't call me sir, even as part of your job. This bear bites, remember?"

"Well, for starters, I don't see an 'old' man, and I think even grumpy could be a misnomer. And I am not teasing the amazingly handsome and dangerous silver haired man sitting next to me. You aren't a mark, so I wouldn't treat you as one."

"Are you going to break my heart, Magnificat? Like Jenny said?"

"In the last twelve hours, you have already captured my heart. I think the better question is if you are going to break mine? And just for the record if you do ever did give me your heart, I would not treat it lightly, would hold it like crystal and guard it with my life."

Not sure what to say, Gibbs looked at her for many seconds before turning his attention to driving to the military base. Instead of responding right then, he just shook his head, looked at her again, and then put the car in gear and took off.

As much as she tried to keep up her teasing and games with Gibbs, Faith was exhausted. After they were on the highway, she leaned her head against the glass and watched the passing scenery. She knew they needed to talk about the Chinese, but she just wanted to sleep. Gibbs was willing to let her talk about it in her own time.

Not moving her head from the glass window, she asked Gibbs when the last time the car had been swept for bugs.

"It's checked every week, and was just swept yesterday."

She was silent a few more minutes and then started to speak in almost whispered tones. "I was sent to China to connect with a top diplomat there named Chao. He was considered kinda like our 'Big Man On Campus.' He loved the ladies, especially the Caucasian women of Europe and the US. He liked them beautiful, intelligent, and sophisticated. I fit the bill and got the assignment. I kept him on the hook for over two weeks gathering information. We had received intel that he was brokering an arms deal that would send biochemical weapons to a man named Omar in Washington. I was sent in to find out more about the deal and how close to fruition it was. While I was there poking around, I discovered that he was funding his projects, and his significantly bad habits, by selling girls from poor farms and orphanages into a black market slavery ring, destined for the US. The girls would be sent over in shipping containers and were lucky to still be alive on the other end. He was also getting his hands dirty with bringing drugs, opium and new designer drugs, to the US and other European countries using his diplomatic status. It was also how he planned to more the biochemical weapons. "

"Someone said something about humiliation. Where did that come in?"

"I had him tagged lock stock and barrel from the minute we met. Pretty soon, he was bringing me everywhere, introducing me to everyone. He kept pushing the envelope trying to impress me. Even after only a few days. Once I disappeared, I'm sure his friends and enemies had figured out that he had been had. It couldn't have gone well for him. And before you ask, no, I did not have sex with him."

"Only two weeks? Don't ops like this take longer?"

"Usually ,yes. But I had a rule of two weeks in and then I was extracted. Ops can go on forever, it gets more dangerous, and pretty soon you run out of excuses not to sleep with the scum bags. I would not be turned into a whore for my country. If they wanted me in, they played by my rules."

I SPY I SPY I SPY I SPY I SPY I SPY I SPY I SPY

Colonel Roger Benton met Gibbs and Faith in his office. He was Michael's commanding officer for the last 4 years and knew who Faith was. Gibbs explained about what they had learned so far about his death, including a description of the tape and autopsy. While painful to review the information again, Faith stayed stoic throughout the discussion. Gibbs then asked if the Colonel could tell them what Michael was working on. Benton confirmed Faith's previous suggestion that he was working on closing down the operations between a Chinese diplomat and an arms dealer working out of Washington. Now that he was dead, the progress died with him unless NCIS could start their own investigation.

Colonel Benton turned towards Faith and offered his strongest regrets. He had genuinely cared about Michael and felt responsible for his death. Faith gave him a small smile as a gesture of thanks.

"Imagine Colonel, I was the one who provided the intel for you to send him out on mission. I never knew it until today. He may never have known. But I do appreciate your condolences."

"Can you let me help in some small way? Who is planning the funeral? Perhaps you would allow me to make the arrangements. Were you planning on Arlington for his burial?"

"Yes, if you could make all the arrangements I would really appreciate that. I don't know how to get through military red tape so you taking that on would be wonderful."

"Of course. I will handle everything. The body is at NCIS, yes?" Benton looked to Gibbs for an affirmative nod. "Is there a particular religion or ceremony you would prefer?"

"Catholic and simple. If you have any questions, you can reach me at NCIS. Thank you Colonel. It was nice to finally meet you."

Benton took Faith's small hand in his, and looked her in the eye, "If there is ever anything that you need, no matter when in the future night or day, please don't hesitate to call me." He handed her his card with all his contact information on it.

"Thank you Colonel. Michael would truly appreciate your kindness." With that she removed her hand from his, placed his card in her purse and turned to leave, Gibbs taking his leave and following close behind.

The couple walked in silence to the car, Gibbs opening the car door for her, and then getting in himself. He turned and looked at her exhausted and still beautiful face. "That Colonel… do all men respond to you that way? He was practically throwing himself at you. I didn't think he was going to let go of you there at the end."

"What you saw there is pretty much the way it is, for good or bad. I didn't set out to make him fall all over me, it just happened. I didn't even say anything until we were preparing to leave. When I set out to target someone, they have virtually no hope of escaping me. What else do we have to do Gibbs? I've pretty much run out of steam."

"We'll just swing by my house so I can pick up a few things and we will head straight to the Army-Navy club. Do you need to pick anything up from the town home?"

"No, Katie has set me up for the funeral and the ball later this week. I meant to ask you earlier. Will you take me to the SecDef ball? It's a black tie affair. No doubt, bad rubber chicken dinner, better dancing, and smoozing galore. My version of hell, and I imagine yours as well."

"Did you target me? Is that why I seem to be unable to keep any distance between us? And why do we want to go to this party?"

"No, like I said earlier, you are not a mark. I would not treat you as one. I want you to want me for me, warts and all. I'm not hiding anything from you. So, are you going to take me to the party or do I need to find another date? I have to go for diplomatic reasons. I bet Tony would take me."

"I'm taking you, and stay away from Tony. I practically gave him a concussion earlier for leering at you."

Faith leaned over and gave Gibbs a light kiss on the cheek. "Thank you Gibbs. Thank you for taking care of me."

* * *

**Chapter 5: Faith Finally Finds Hope**

* * *

I Spy

Chapter 5

Faith Finally Finds Hope

Faith and Gibbs stepped off the elevator on the top floor of the Army-Navy Club, the penthouse floor. Gibbs carried his bags for an extended stay and as they approached the room, Di'Nozzo stood up from the hall couch to greet them.

"Hey Boss."

"Di'Nozzo. What are you doing here?"

"We finished early with the secret service so I thought I'd come and sweep the two rooms for bugs, as well as take on the night shift of protection for Katie, Ms. Worthington's friend."

"What happened, Tony? Is she a real looker? You are usually not so self-motivated without a reason."

"Well, she is beautiful and Ziva and I had a great interview with her earlier. But she is just in so much pain. I couldn't leave her alone, and since we are going to be providing protection for her as well as Faith, I thought I would just get started."

Gibbs looked at him skeptically, but nodded his approval. Maybe he had grown emotionally after the tragedy of Jeanne. "You better be sleeping on the couch Di'Nozzo."

"On top of it Boss. It's a fold out. Faith, I'll let her know you are home. She really has wanted to see you."

"Good Tony. Send her over, ok? And thanks for taking such good care of her. She'll be fragile for a while now."

Gibbs and Faith entered their room and looking at Faith hanging on by a thread he took her in his arms and tried to infuse her with some of his strength. She would need it for what he was determined would be her last hurdle of the day. He would do everything else for her. She could just climb into bed. There was a knock on the door, and before answering Gibbs gave Faith a kiss on the head and squeezed her hands, messaging his support. He opened the door with Faith right behind him, and Katie entered the room. The two women hugged and then Katie immediately broke down in sobs. Gibbs took his card key and pushed Di'Nozzo out of the room and closed the door after him, leaving them some privacy.

Clearly Katie was taking the death of her lover very badly, and she knew none of the details to make the situation even worse. Gibbs and Di'Nozzo talked quietly about how the day had transpired and the two women that had entered their lives, rocking their worlds. Di'Nozzo asked if he could be Katie's protection 24/7 like Gibbs was to Faith, but was told no. Faith is an agent. She can go on all the interviews, investigations, etc. It doesn't keep Gibbs from doing his job. Di'Nozzo, as a senior agent, is too necessary to closing this case and Katie cannot accompany him anywhere. Besides, her job is to get

the town house up and ready, not something he can expend an agent like Di'Nozzo on to provide protection. The secret service will have to provide that detail. "However, Di'Nozzo, if you want to spend your off duty time, such as it is, on protecting her, you can do that."

"Thanks Boss. So are YOU going to be sleeping on the pull-out?"

"Don't push it Di'Nozzo."

The door finally opened and Katie's eyes and face were swollen with long shed tears. Gibbs noticed that while Faith looked almost gray in color, her eyes were dry and she had clearly not been crying with her friend. The two women hugged good night, and Tony put his arm around Katie and led her to their suite, while Gibbs entered the one he now shared with Faith.

He closed the door behind him as he gathered Faith in his arms. "Are you ok?"

"No."

"What can I do?"

"Can you order room service while I take a shower? I need to eat and then I need to sleep."

"I can do that. I'll get the sofa bed made up as well so you can go straight to sleep and I won't disturb you."

"No."

"No?"

"You are sleeping in my bed with me. It is now our bed. And no, sex is not on the menu tonight, I'll be lucky if I can complete a shower, but you are sleeping next to me. I need you Jethro. Please."

"I'm beginning to think there is nothing in the world I could deny you."

"That sounds promising."

"What do you want from room service?

" Spaghetti Bolognese, a wedge salad, and their best bottle of Amarone. Order yourself whatever you want, and given your penchant for bourbon, if they have anything decent get a bottle of that as well. And you might as well get our breakfast ordered too. Scrambled eggs, dry, toast, and coffee for me. Set whatever time you want, since you'll decide when and where we are going next."

Faith walked into the bedroom with Gibbs right behind her as she was talking about room service. She pulled off her tank top, leaving just a bra giving him the chance to see where some of her weapons were hidden. "Sorry about the treasure hunt. I really did intend to have one tonight, but I'm pretty done for." She unbuckled her belt and leaned over, removing an ammo carrier from one leg and another gun from the other. She laid everything out on the wide dresser in the bedroom. Then she turned towards

Gibbs who was still standing there and shimmied out of her jeans, leaving her in some black lacy bikinis and a matching bra. "Seen enough Gibbs? "

Gibbs was leaning against the doorframe between the bedroom and living area, watching every move Faith made. He gave her one of those slow, seductive smiles. "For now. I'll get that room service taken care of." He turned on his heels and went to place the order. Faith smiled at Gibbs' attention. Then she pulled her men's pajama bottoms and raggedy and worn marine cut off t-shirt together and headed for the shower.

Katie, bless her heart, had left Faith's favorite jasmine shampoo and bath wash in the bath for her. It was like the spaghetti Bolognese, comfort food and scent for the soul. She started thinking back on the most horrible day of her life. As the heat from the shower got hotter and hotter, she just couldn't get warm, seemed ice cold. The more she thought about the tape, the interviews, the body, Katie's broken heart, the colder she got. Within seconds she had dropped with a hard thump in the shower, unconscious in scalding hot water.

Gibbs was in another room receiving the room service tray when he heard the thump of Faith falling in the shower, and ran towards her terrified of what he might find. He flew into the bathroom, taking little notice of the extreme amount of steam that had filled the room. He pulled the door to the shower open and found scalding hot water pouring over the unconscious body of Faith. He yanked the water to the off position and pulled Faith into his arms, wrapping her in a towel.

He carried her gently to the bed, opening the towel to look at her injuries. Other than dark pink skin, she looked ok. But he had no idea what had caused her to collapse. He pulled the blankets over her naked body while he dialed Ducky.

"Ducky, Faith collapsed in the shower in scalding hot water. She still hasn't regained consciousness. And she is really cold, even though I just pulled her out of scalding water. Can you come? I'm worried about her."

"It sounds like she is in some kind of shock, and given her day, that isn't a surprise. You are at the Army-Navy club? I'll be there in ten minutes. Keep her under covers and warm."

Gibbs crawled under the covers and wrapped himself around Faith, making sure that no blisters were starting to form from the scorching water. They lay like that until Ducky knocked on the door. Gibbs disentangled himself from Faith, disturbing her for the first time. As worried as he was, it did please him when she called his name in her sleep. Ducky came in and immediately approached her, moving to take her temperature and do a checkup. He was concerned about her lowered temperature, but everything else looked fine. He tried to wake her up, and with a few pats to her face, she did regain consciousness, immediately calling for Gibbs. He went quickly to the other side of the bed and moved next to her, while Ducky monitored her color, blood pressure, and temperature.

"What happened? Why is Ducky here?"

"Baby, you fainted in the shower in scalding hot water. Your temperature was still really cold even though you were in hot water."

"Did I get burned?"

"No, you were pink when I pulled you out of the shower, but it doesn't look like any blisters have risen."

"Probably just some good heavy lotion all over and you should be fine. I'm sure Jethro can manage. I want you to eat something, a lot of something, even if you don't feel like it. And I know what a chore this will be for you both, but I require that you both snuggle close together to bring her temperature up and keep it up. Do you think you can manage that?"

Ducky was rewarded with twin blushes from his two friends.

"I'll just let myself out, then."

Faith snuggled up close to Gibbs after Ducky left. "Thank you for rescuing me Agent Gibbs. I guess you got your treasure hunt after all. Tell me, did you peek?"

"I thought we had called off the treasure hunt for a better night. And I tried to be a complete gentleman, and did not 'peek', but only wrapped you in the towels. Since the crisis is over, can I peek now?"

"Better feed me first. Once you start applying that lotion, you'll have ample opportunity to peek."

"Well, we wouldn't want you to blister, and staying warm really does need to be a priority since not long ago you were ice cold."

"Somehow, I think you slathering lotion all over my naked body will keep me pretty warm, hot even. When do you think you could get started with that, Gibbs?"

"Let's eat first. I'll open your wine as well."

"Perfect, Jethro. My hero. I'll just wait for you here, naked and hungry, needing a lot of hands on care with lotion. I'm hoping you're rather motivated. Are you?"

"Faith, the only thing that would make me any more motivated was if you told me I could spank you while rubbing that lotion in."

"Really! Well, we do have a lot to talk about. The mind is willing, even the body, but I'm afraid that little adventure might have to wait until another day."

"No worries. I'm not going anywhere. Spaghetti Bolognese, my dear?"

* * *

**Chapter 6: Gibbs Finds His Faith**

* * *

I Spy

Chapter 6

Gibbs Finds His Own Faith

A/N This chapter contains rather tame but sexual situations, including spanking. I still consider this a T rating, and am experimenting with keeping at that level. Most of my stuff seems to end up in the hard M area. If feedback suggests that I change the story to an M, please let me know.

The next morning Faith woke up with her still naked body wrapped around Gibb's Boxer-brief clad one. She fondly remembered the night before with his very attentive massage of lotion into her slightly burned body. And, following Ducky's instructions, they had spent the night folded in each other's arms to keep her body temperature warm. The close proximity of each other managed to keep both bodies beyond warm and into the very heated zone. It was a very nice ending to a very terrible day.

The phone rang, startling Gibbs out of his comfortable slumber, while Faith, already awake, responded quicker to the phone call. The phone being on Gibb's side of the bed, she slithered across his body leaving her very lower abdomen in contact with his quickly hardening manhood. Her ass was only partly covered by the sheets and she smiled slyly at him when he groaned.

She answered the phone as if nothing out of the ordinary was happening in her bedroom. "Hello?"

"Ms. Worthington?"

"Good morning, Col. Benton." Gibbs popped her slightly on her now completely revealed ass. Ignoring Gibb's warning, she went on. "To what do I have this honor, Col.?"

"I have finalized the arrangements for Michael's funeral and wanted to let you know."

"Of course, Col. Can I put you on speaker phone since I am getting dress as we are talking. Agent Gibbs and I have an appointment this morning." Gibbs signed to her that yes, they did indeed have an appointment, and it involved his body coming up close and personal with hers. She signed back that apparently he hadn't noticed they were already up close and personal. He signed to her that she needed to wrap this conversation with the Colonel up, before he got started without her..

"I don't want to keep you from your appointments. I've arranged for the funeral to be at 0011 hours tomorrow. He'll be buried in plot E-17. I'm sure Gibbs can find it. Our Catholic priest will do a simple ceremony graveside. I was concerned about having the flag presented directly to you. While it is your honor to have it, it may also give away your identity. I was thinking that the flag could be presented to Agent Gibbs in your stead."

"That is a good idea. I'll discuss it with Agent Gibbs, but plan on that approach."

"I have also made arrangements for additional marine security. There has been some scuttlebutt that there is a plan in place to take you out during the funeral."

At that news, Gibbs spoke up. "Gibbs here. How serious is the threat Colonel? Should she even attend?" Whatever had been developing between the two of them, had just come roaring to a stop.

"I am going to attend my brother's funeral. Benton's marines and the secret service will need to be on the lookout for snipers. That will be their approach. Colonel, do you know for sure that my cover has been compromised?"

"Chatter through Michael's channels has you, Faith, not Magnificat, identified as a very important person to Michael, and the woman he was trying to protect. That is the extent of what we have so far. I've got an entire covert op team working on finding more information. The sale of this bioweapon must be close if they want you dead so quickly."

"But I don't have any information on that. That was Michael's area of expertise. Maybe Chao is in the country and wants to personally see my dead. Gibbs, can we find out if he is here? He'll be delivering the weapon directly."

Gibbs scooted out from under Faith, reluctantly but quickly leaving her body. "I'm on it. I'll get Di'Nozzo to search for diplomatic info. Colonel, does your Marine covert team have any leads into who the shooter might be?"

"As soon as we are off of this call, I'll task them with it. If there is an assassin to be found we'll find him. I promise Faith. I'll have snipers covering the entire field of view just in case."

"Thank you Colonel. Let's keep each other posted today. There is a lot to be done. We'll check in with you in two hours Colonel. Thank you again."

"Good bye Faith, Gibbs."

Faith rolled over in the sheets, exposing her entire body. "Damn! At this rate, I am never going to have you, Agent Gibbs, make love to me, fuck me, or even spank me really good. For the first time in positively ages, I've wanted someone, and I get to focus on staying alive instead. We should focus on Chao. He is the key to this whole thing. He will want to see me die personally, after what I did to him. We have to get his diplomatic immunity stripped. And I want to be in on his interrogation."

Gibbs had gathered his clothes, made a few phone calls to get things started and headed for the shower. "If he is in possession of a terrorist weapon, his diplomatic immunity is instantly waived. China won't even bother to protect him. His life just got very bad."

"Ziva should be tasked to search out Omar. And what is your computer Geek finding on Michael's computer? He would have left a trail to be followed, just like crumbs in a forest."

"McGee hasn't been able to break through the encryption software yet."

"Well, why didn't you tell me? Where is your phone? I'll get him through it. Is he working with Abby?" but Gibbs had disappeared into the shower.

Faith grabbed up Gibbs' phone and hit the speed dial for Abby, just so see how she would answer the phone. "Good morning my silver-haired fox! How was your evening on protection detail?"

"Your silver haired fox's evening was exceptional, as was mine. I'll tell him you asked."

"Um, Faith. Where is Gibbs? Why are you calling?"

"Ah, Abby, Gibbs is in the shower, but since I'm calling about the computer he couldn't really help us anyway. Is McGee there with you? Are you still working on Michael's computer? Can you put me on the speaker phone so McGee can hear me too."

"McGee, I just learned from Gibbs that you haven't been able to break the encryption on Michael's computer. Here is the information you need." Faith proceeded to rattle off multiple passwords in various languages to finally get to the main information base. "Now, what do you see?

"He has folders marked as Omar, Chao, weapon distribution, and personal."

"Ok, Gibbs and I will be in within the hour. Figure out the connection between Omar and Chao, when the timetable is for delivering the weapon, and of course, what the weapon is. Di'Nozzo is on Chao, and what we have to have to get past his diplomatic immunity. The man is a terrorist, he gets treated as one. Ziva is on Omar. Oh and by the way, there is a hit on me for the funeral tomorrow at 0011 hours by an as yet unknown assassin. The marine covert ops are covering that angle. Oh Abby, here is your silver haired fox. How was your shower Gibbs? Cold? Well, while you were enjoying your cold shower, McGee broke the encryption code and we might actually get to get these guys today."

McGee and Abby expected Gibbs to give her a hard lesson on delivering orders to his team, using his phone, or something. Instead, all they got was a reference to disliking cold showers and not wanting to take anymore, and that they would see them within the hour and they better have something for Faith and him to work with. And then he hung up.

"Silver-haired Fox?"

"You aren't jealous are you Faith? You are about to be assassinated tomorrow, we have diplomats delivering bioterrorism weapons, and you are jealous over a child like woman genius who has a crush on me."

"Who you give little pecks on the cheek, and allow her to full body jump you every time you see her. Do you realize you have slept naked with me, but you have never even kissed me. Not the kisses on the head or cheek. But the real mouth to mouth, I'm sucking the life force out of you kiss. I realize I don't have your heart, but maybe Abby does.

Faith climbed out of the bed, showing her entirely naked body to him as she walked to the closet to get clothes for the day. "What do you think Agent Gibbs, jeans and tank like yesterday, or a dress, even a

very short dress like Abby wears since you seem to have a penchant for them on her, or one of my expensive Chanel numbers?" For the first time ever, he heard the ice coldness in her voice. This thing with Abby had really pissed her off.

"Today we are going to doing a lot of running around talking to a lot of different people. What do you think would provide the most distraction?"

"Hmmm, I have the perfect thing Agent Gibbs. I can't compete with your Abby in the shoe category, but in the shortness and distractibility I think I can cover that. Funny, my mother would be rolling in her grave over the things I wear now to protect my cover. Assuming I survive, I go back into my Channel and Vera Wangs and go do charity work."

"You are going to survive, I promise. But before you head to the showers, we have one piece of business to attend to."

"And what would that be Agent Gibbs? I only gave us an hour to get the NCIS."

He sat on the edge of the bed and pulled her to him laying her across his lap, stomach down, placing her little ass right on top of the joining between his legs.

"You have got to be kidding. As pissed off as I am now, I am not going to find this the least bit amusing or sexy." Of course as much as she complained, she could already feel herself getting wet. She'd be damned if she'd admit it though.

He pinned her down with one hand and spanked her bottom hard. She let out a little squeak at the sting. Ironically, she felt his pants start to tent under her. This wasn't just a turn on for her.

"That, my dearest Faith, is for using my phone without permission. Of course, I have always believed in asking forgiveness rather than permission anyway."

He swatted her again, even harder. This time she let out a full cry. It really hurt, but after every time he spanked her he rubbed her bottom to alleviate the sting. She decided this really was kind of sexy. He was going to realize it soon to as she might be leaking onto his pants if he kept this up. "That was for being jealous of Abby. There is nothing going on there, never has been, never will be. You are the woman I want, and we need to get busy keeping you alive."

And once again his hand went back and slapped her very red bottom very hard. There was no rubbing the sting away this time. "That was so you remember me all day long. If I think you have forgotten me, like when we are with Colonel Benton, the sting from this one should recall to mind just who you belong too, my little spy. And this," he placed two fingers into my dripping wet core rubbing around to get the maximum wetness on his fingers "will remind me of just who I belong to."

"Oh my God, Jethro, I'm so close to coming. Please just a few more minutes." Faith couldn't believe she actually whimpered.

"No, no time. You will just have to be on the edge all day long until we can take care of business later on tonight. Go take your shower, we leave in 30 minutes. Don't be late."

"Or what? You will leave without me?"

"No, you know I won't leave without you. But there will be consequences. You know what they are."

Faith grabbed her clothes and hurried into the shower." Jethro sat in his chair next to the coffee and smelled the two fingers of exquisite scent he had stolen from his willing victim. He really did have to keep her alive, because if he didn't, his breaking heart would kill him too.

* * *

**Chapter 7: Hope Finds Faith**

* * *

I Spy

Chapter 7

Hope finds Faith

She was late. Not by much, but there was no way she could wait until tonight for some release so she handled that quietly in the shower, not very satisfying but it was something. And then she had her makeup and hair to do, and then get her chosen dress on. Thirty minutes just didn't cut it. Had she turned her life over to a megalomaniac? What would he do about her lateness? Spank her again? She wouldn't be able to take that again. Every touch increased her arousal. She'd be insane by the end of the day. If he didn't take tonight, over and over, being assassinated the next day would be a welcome release. She checked herself once again in the mirror, grabbed her purse and walked out of the dressing room.

Gibbs was sitting in the chair sipping coffee and reading the newspaper. "You're late."

Still not looking at her, he asked "What did I say about being late?"

"You told me not to be late. But thirty minutes is not enough time Gibbs."

At her excuse, he looked up and dropped his coffee cup and his newspaper. He was prepared to lecture about having excuses etc., but who could lecture a goddess? Faith had on an emerald green silk dress, quite short, barely covering a third of the top of her thigh. The color matched her eyes and with her reddish hair coloring she was nothing less than stunning. The outfit had a matching jacket slightly longer than the dress. She wore no stockings but matching green shoes, making her legs look like they went on forever.

Gibbs stood up, trying to find his voice. He had planned another spanking for the tardiness, but he wasn't sure he could just stop at a spanking.

"Ok, Gibbs. I know you like what you see. Will it work for what we are going to be doing today? Enough of a distraction for you? Do you want or need to spank me for being late? Or should we just get going?"

"You are being impertinent now, in addition to being late. I think any further discipline for these infractions will have to wait until this evening."

"Ok. I'll look forward to it. But I do have one little surprise for you that I want you thinking about while contemplating my punishment tonight." Gibbs continued to stare at her, so she moved towards him, forcing him backwards until he was pressed against the wall. "Kiss me Gibbs. I know you want me, want me so bad. Kiss me, claim me before we leave this room."

Gibbs knew he was beat, beaten by a master no less. He leaned towards her putting his mouth near hers. "Are you sure about this little spy?"

"Oh, yes Agent Gibbs. Very sure. And while you are kissing me, assuming you get around to it, why don't you grip me on my bottom you seem so partial to and pull me towards you. Let's get a sense of what your seemingly perpetual hard-on feels like against my permanently heated core. We might create our own small mushroom cloud."

She was driving him to desperation, pressing him against the wall, teasing him like she was but he refrained from taking control. She wanted control, she had it. He'd do as she asked. He started kissing her lips softly, almost so softly she couldn't feel it. His tongue unhurriedly stroked her lips until slowly the pressure sped up and his tongue leisurely forced her willing mouth to open and receive his hungry tongue. She moaned into his mouth, creating a vibration he felt all the way down to his toes. This man knew how to kiss. She tasted like toothpaste and he tasted of coffee and both thought those were the yummiest tastes in the world. Much like their relationship, their tongues battled for dominance with Gibbs eventually winning, flipping their positions so he was crushing Faith against the wall. He did as she asked and picked her up and held her to him, creating an inferno where their two groins came together and rubbed. She wrapped her legs around him tightly, pulling them together even tighter. As he rubbed his hands across her ass, he realized she was completely bare, no thong, no underwear, completely shaved. It was only by quick reflexes that he didn't drop her. His breathing became labored as he considered the possibilities.

Still holding her off the ground and against the wall, breathing hard in her ear he said "You win. I give up. You have me, completely. But are you going out like that? Short, very short, dress that looks like it cost 1000 dollars, bare legs, and no underwear?"

"I was planning on it. Unless you tell me no. You said you needed a distraction. Am I enough of a distraction for you? You think others will be distracted enough too? I mean, really Gibbs, they aren't going to know I don't have any underwear. That will be our own personal distraction. Keep me alive today and by the time we get back here tonight we'll finally set that mushroom cloud between us off. And you were close on the dress, 5000 dollar Vera Wang. Not your common dress."

"A distinctive dress for a most distinctive woman. Where are you carrying your gun? "

"One is in my purse, and a smaller gun is at my inner thigh. You wanna frisk me, Gibbs?"

"No, I want to spank you until you can't sit down again today, and then take you to bed and wear you out to where you walk bow legged the next day. Instead, I am going to use my notorious restraint and we are going to leave this room and go to work.

"So, I guess you aren't going to say no to me and make me change?"

"You know Faith. I'm rapidly learning that I can't seem to say no to you on pretty much anything. Let's go. And stay away from Tony. Please."

"Tony who?"

ISPY ISPY ISPY ISPY ISPY ISPY ISPY ISPY ISPY ISPY ISPY

Gibbs and Faith walked into the bullpen considerably later than they had planned. But one look at Faith's outfit seemed to silently explain their delay. Gibbs started barking orders with Di'Nozzo up first. Unfortunately for Tony, he was busy paying attention to Faith and her legs instead of Gibbs. He got a head slap for that and a whispered word of warning if he couldn't stay focused on the situation on hand, Gibbs would help refocus him. No more warnings.

Tony showed pictures of Chao with a variety of women, even a few with Faith. No one liked seeing her shining face looking up to his smarmy one. Only Gibbs noticed how dead her eyes looked in the picture.

The picture on the big screen made her uncomfortable so she started asking questions. "Do we know for sure he is in the country? Where is he staying and who is he staying with? He may have diplomatic immunity, but that won't keep him from some of the higher end whores in the DC area. He thinks he is safe so he won't be hiding behind the embassy. Do we have any idea if he has met with Omar?"

"Slow down Faith. Too much caffeine this morning."

"Tony, in case your vapid mind hasn't heard yet, I am targeted to be killed tomorrow at the funeral. We are on a bit of a timeline. If they miss there, they'll go for the SecDef Ball. All high visibility events to gain news coverage and feed their egos."

"Ziva, Shalom. How have you done with Omar?"

"Well McGee getting the computer decoded has helped. I have pictures," which magically appeared on the screen, "along with what Michael had found about the delivery schedule. There is still a folder called personal that Tim and Abby were debating opening until you could come see it yourself."

"Gibbs, can't we just have them bring it up here, or do we have to go down there?"

"I'll talk to McGee and see if he can bring it up or if it is requiring special lab stuff."

A brief conversation later, the whole team was on its way down to the lab. Ziva and Faith spoke quietly in Hebrew about how she was feeling. Ziva had heard that she had passed out and been scalded by the water, but as far as she knew she was the only one who knew.

"Gibbs. Why does McGee need us down here?" Faith clearly did not want to go to the lab, and there was a whine in her voice that could be heard. Gibbs signed back to her a reminder about his feelings for her and lack of same feelings for Abby. He asked her to take the high road. Besides, if the photos needed to be manipulated or uncovered, they needed the computers in the lab to do this.

Once the elevator arrived, they walked out with Abby once again throwing herself at Gibbs, and even going so far as to wrap her legs around his waist. She was behind Abby so she couldn't see her and signed that now they would find two different sets of women's DNA on his pants. Wasn't he lucky? Before he could respond, she turned her back to him and her attention on the folders. "McGee what is in the personal folder?"

"Out of respect for you, we waited to open it."

"Thank you McGee. Let's open this up." Pictures galore set themselves up on a slow slideshow to view. The first ones were routine ones of herself and Katie, places in the world he had visited. "I've seen these pictures before, I have them in frames, but there is something not right about these. They are slightly altered. Can you find the alterations? Maybe like in art, there is a picture behind the picture."

"You're good Faith. Let me run an algorithm to see what is behind the pixels making up the pictures. It might be just a single pixel with some information on it. Like a date and time, or place. He would have hidden that information."

"While McGee is working on that, I want to give you an update on the funeral tomorrow." Gibbs spoke up. He shared about the credible threats towards Faith, the snipers that would be all over the funeral tomorrow. Colonel Benton has his covert ops team finding information as to who and exactly when, who hired him etc. "

"Sounds like Benton is pretty motivated," said Tony.

"Yeah, well I think he fell a little bit in love while we were there. Faith wasn't even trying and he fell head over heels. He planned the entire funeral as well."

"She is some kind of modern Mata Hari, Boss. You better be careful. You might have a great night in bed with her but then you don't wake up. She'll use you and then kill you." Tony leered over at Faith again and added, "But what a way to go."

"Tony, I can't even begin to tell you how offensive that reference is. I am not a prostitute like she was. I am a spy that uses her looks and wealth to open doors. And as she once said, 'I am a woman who enjoys herself very much; sometimes I lose, sometimes I win.' The latter we have in common. But to outright state that I would kill Gibbs after a great night of sex because I had gotten the information I needed from him… well you know that just pisses me off. Tony, I'm a better shot than you, I know more ways to kill and torture than you will ever know, and given my current mood, I'd stay the hell out of my way. Do you get my drift? It's not subtle so I'm sure even your lower brain, the one you think with the most, could absorb the information."

Ziva and Abby burst out laughing at Tony's face and reflexive grab for his penis to protect it from Faith.

"Tony, meet me in the upstairs conference room in an hour. Don't be late." Gibbs was barely containing his fury. Tony started to sweat even more than before.

McGee had been ignoring the little exchange between Tony and Faith and had been diligently working the pixel algorithm.

He brought up the picture and then enhanced its pixel properties. He had found an address for Omar and a delivery schedule. Ziva was thrilled for the leads and the photograph Michael's computer had provided. He went through the rest of the pictures and found information on Chao, not just his bioweapons smuggled, but also the smuggling of girls into the country for slavery and prostitution and

the drugs as well. He was a very bad boy, and we had enough to get started finding what we needed to pierce his diplomatic veil.

* * *

**Chapter 8: Where there is life there is hope**

* * *

I Spy

Chapter 8

While there is life there is hope

After Gibbs dealt with Di'Nozzo upstairs privately, Di'Nozzo came walking out a little gently. It didn't matter though, Gibbs was still pissed off. Faith didn't think Di'Nozzo would be annoying her anymore.

Once private matters were attended too, they all separated to our various assignments, with Gibbs and Faith tracking down Omar. Both men noticed that she had changed from her green sexy Vera Wang to her more comfortable Old Navy low cut jeans and tank top. When Gibbs raised his eyebrows at her change of clothing, she smiled ironically at him. "Guys like this live in pits, plus I think overcompensating in the armament area is more important than providing your distraction. This outfit allows me to be fully locked and loaded."

Tony piped up without thinking, "You provide a distraction no matter what you are wearing, Faith." He promptly got hit on the back of the head.

"Tony, will you ever learn?"

"Apparently not Boss."

Faith smiled at their interchange. "Well, Tony, I for one thank you for the compliment. I'm glad it doesn't take a 5000 Vera Wang to get your attention. A simple cheap outfit from Old Navy works for you. Good to know."

Faith and Gibbs headed towards the address that Michael had provided on Omar. The secret service contingent followed closely behind. Gibbs' anger came off of him in waves. Faith's latest flirtatious indiscretion with Tony, especially after he had gone to all the trouble to punish Di'Nozzo for all his come-ons in the first place was the source of the black mood filling the car. "You know Gibbs," she put her arm around his neck and stroked his hair, "I know I am racking up a litany of sins you are going to punish me for. And that is good with me, so very good. I get wet just thinking about it. All I ask is that you wait until tomorrow night, instead of this evening. I could die tomorrow, very well may die if they go for the head and not the chest. I want what may possibly be our first night to make love and our last night together, and leaving us both with wonderful memories to take into hell with us. The kinky stuff we both enjoy can wait a night, I think."

"You really think I am going to let you die tomorrow? Oh ye of so little faith. And how can you think if you are killed, you are going to hell?"

"I've killed more than 20 people, Gibbs. I've done some terrible things in the name of country, but never in the name of God and Country. I'm Catholic. I go to church and I believe in a heaven and a hell. Unlike the darkened place known immemorial as Dante's Inferno, Hell is being kept from God. Maybe all my hours of reconciliation, all my Hail Mary's, my Apostle's Creeds will not keep me too far from God.

When your time is up, it's up. Gibbs, you are not super human, although I think you are superman. You cannot singlehandedly keep a bullet from piercing my body. If I am to die tomorrow, then nothing can be done for it. I go meet my Maker and pray for mercy and forgiveness. I am not giving up hope, the snipers, the marines, NCIS, YOU, all of those people give me hope. To lose hope, that must surely be the greatest sin against God and those who are working to save my life. While there is life, there is hope. (Cicero)"

They had arrived at the address they were aiming for. Faith moved to get out of the car, but Gibbs held her back. "You will not die tomorrow. If you die, then I will die too, because I will not be able to live without you. 'But we should never talk defeat. Use words like hope, belief, faith and victory' (Norman Vincent Peale)." He leaned towards her and kissed her deep and thoroughly, forcing them to break away when they needed air.

Faith looked at him with tears in her eyes. "I will not die. For you." (borrowed from In Plain Sight/USA)

She looked at Gibbs longingly, hoping they made it till the end of the day, and the end of every day for the rest of their given days. "I love you Jethro Gibbs."

He was watching her the same way she was watching him. He took her hand and turned her palm up and placed a kiss in the center. He looked back at her, seeing the tears in her eyes, "I love you, Faith Worthington." They squeezed each other's hands and told each other to stay safe. Then Faith reached for the car door.

She'd forgotten about the Secret Service guard that was traveling with them. Before they could pull a gun, she had the door popped open and a gun aimed at the head of the senior agent. He slowly raised his hands, and she took a deep breath recognizing the poor man's person and tucked her gun behind her. "Sorry about that. I'm still trying to get used to having you guys around."She touched his arm and gave him an apologetic smile." Can we go get the bad guy now?"

Gibbs spoke up reminding the secret service guys that their number one priority was to protect Faith. If they happened to take out Omar, well that was just gravy. But, Faith, she was the most important.

The senior agent, a little miffed at some senior NCIS agent needing to remind them what their protection duties spoke up "Yes, sir. We understand our priorities. You don't need to remind us. This isn't our first, or even twentieth assignment."

"Don't call him sir. He hates that. And everyone is just a little nervous given the death threats towards me tomorrow. Let's just head inside. Walk slowly, there may be booby traps. Stay sharp."

Omar's place was a dive. It was filthy and the rats in the hall way were a nice touch. The hallways were dark and smelled or urine. Faith gagged several times along the way, but managed to not throw up her breakfast.

They reached the door that Michael had identified at Omar's. Both Gibbs and Faith looked over the door and doorframe looking for any kind of booby trap. Silently, Faith pulled Gibbs' jacket and showed

him the small wire that was hanging out in a small circle on the outside of the door. He nodded to her and signed that he was going outside to call the bomb squad. She responded they should all get away from the area until the bomb squad reached the area. There was no telling what the trigger might be. He agreed, but also told her in sign language that opening the door was probably the trigger given the look of the wire. And, given the trip wire, it probably meant he wasn't here anymore. We would have to keep as much as possible intact from that room to find Omar and where we went next.

Faith pulled the Secret service guys away from the door, told them the discussion they has just witness in sign language. They would all wait outside until the bomb squad arrived. Hopefully, it would be less than an hour.

Sure enough, an hour later the bomb squad showed up in all their glory. The lead tech followed Gibbs up the stairs where he showed them the small trip wire that wouldn't have even been seen unless someone knew what they were looking for. The bomb squad brought up sonar equipment to look at what was behind the door. Gibbs and Faith were kept out for a while as was the secret service detail. They passed the time with Faith teaching Gibbs and the secret service guys how to use the Ninja throwing stars as weapons. When using the stars, the target was the carotid artery or esophagus of the person targeted. It started out as a lark, but it became quite competitive between the guys, especially since Faith was an expert marksman with the stars, and while Gibbs had already staked his claim on Faith, the security detail was determined to offer other options.

They stopped throwing the stars as the bomb squad leader approached. Faith gathered them all up and replaced them on her body where she could access them. "Hey guys, this isn't intended to be a peep show. Get over it. Sgt. Robertson, what do you have for us?"

"You were very lucky, if you hadn't spotted the trip wire, you would have been blown to smithereens. We are trying to figure out how to go through the door without disturbing the bomb. It may come down to blowing the bomb and going with what we get inside."

"That is unacceptable. This is the first stop of a terrorist who is probably planning an attack on DC. We need as much as possible intact. Have you considered taking out the pins on the opposite side of the door? Perhaps your team can figure out how to minimize damage since we know where the trip wire is. Would you like for me to go up with you to explain what I'm talking about?"

All three men, Gibbs and the two security detail, simultaneously voiced that idea down vehemently. The Sgt. looked at the three of them surprised. "Are you the bomb expert here?"

"Yes, and these are my guardian angels. It's complicated. Look, Gibbs, I promise I won't touch anything. I just want to show them what needs to happen. Gibbs can come with me. You guys stay here. Sorry, we can't have a lot of vibration up there. The three of us only Sgt, unless there is already a sonar operator up there. I need to see what we are looking at."

Within another half an hour they had a plan that entailed taking the door off of its hinges, covering the likely explosive area with the bomb blast barriers, and praying that the bomb would detonate outward,

rather than inward. The look and feel of the bomb, the construction and placement, made the experts think it would explode outwards. Everyone except the specific bomb squad members required and the robot remained in the building. All other personnel were outside the building. Faith offered up a prayer for the bomb squad members' souls and that this would work to find Omar. She prayed that Michael's horrible death had not been in vain and that he was resting finally in the presence of God.

They had given everyone the wires that allowed everyone to hear what was going on. Gibbs and Faith listened intently, hoping the situation went their way. A sudden blast came from the wall between the apartment and the exterior wall. That was good news so far. Faith was quick to ask after everyone's safety and was quickly crying tears of joy at the positive response. Gibbs was quick to encircle Faith in his arms, protecting her from prying eyes. He gave her the time to get herself together before they went into the lair of the devil and hunted for their information. The bomb squad was now going to through the room with bomb sniffing dogs and Robbie the robot to hunt for secondary devices. After another half an hour they were ready for Gibbs and Faith to do their search. The bomb search guys were so moved by Faith's care for them in their moments of danger they stayed present. "Ok, guys if you are going to hang out here, which given the circumstances, I'm not complaining about, but you are going to have to put on gloves and help us out. We are looking for anything that would be correspondence in Arabic, I need someone to check the laptop and make sure it isn't a bomb we bring back to our lab. Go through all papers, see what kind of financial papers he has. Put it all if this box. DO NOT touch anything without gloves. Any questions? If you find anything in a language other than English, bring it directly to me."

Everyone started going over everything, collecting everything available. There were quite a few papers in Arabic, some of which seemed in code. "Gibbs, I read Arabic, and this is standard mind you, may your death by an honorable on etc. There are three here that are in Arabic, but seems to be in a code. I need to get this back to McGee and Abby."

"They don't read Arabic, Faith."

"No, but I do. They are the code crackers. I need their help to crack the code."

"Ok, if these guys can stay and help me, I know I'm not as beautiful to look at as you are, then maybe the secret service can take you back."

"I don't like leaving you here with no back up. Maybe one of the secret service agents could stay here with you."

"No, ma'm. We stay with the protectee."

"You heard the man, Faith. You go with your protection detail. I only have another half hour. "

Sgt. Robertson spoke up. "Ms. Worthington, you have done much for us today including praying for us and our souls. We would be honored to repay the debt by seeing to it that your partner is safely seen back to NCIS. I promise. We are not just bomb experts, we can shoot too. Please let us do this for you."

Faith looked deep into Gibbs' eyes and saw his passion and love for her, his need to get on with the investigation, and his fear for her safety. She signed to him "I love you Jethro. Please come home to me safely. I'll see you back at the lab. Don't take too long. It's time for us to go home, together."

He signed back to her "And which home would that be? Army-Navy Club? My house? Your town home? NCIS?

Still signing she told him, "Home is where your heart is. Where is your heart, baby?"

He spoke up, forgetting to sign "It's with you. It has always been with you."

She signed back to him. "Then I'll see you at the lab, and then we'll go home to our town house together."

Faith turned and looked at the secret service detail. "Let's go back to the lab, guys. I need the papers and the laptop." She then turned to the bomb squad members, and with a smile "Thank you for doing exactly what we needed. I am so glad no one got hurt. Take care of Gibbs. If he gets grumpy, just give me a call." She handed her card to Sgt. Robertson. "I expect to see him back at NCIS in the next hour, got it Sgt?"

"Yes, M'am. We will return him to your care with all due respect."

* * *

**Chapter 9: Hope Springs Eternal**

* * *

A/N: Thanks for all the nice feedback. I appreciate it. This chapter has a section in it that might be considered a light M. Be warned and you can skip that part if you want. There isn't enough to cause a rating change, hence the light warning. BTW- if you recognize the characters they belong to CBS and the powers that be. Otherwise they belong to me.

I Spy

Chapter 9

Hope Springs Eternal

Faith raced down to the lab with her secret service guys right behind her. A previous phone call had Abby and McGee prepped for what they were going to be working on. McGee had already set up the explosive chamber to power up the lap top, and Abby had brought on some on-line Arabic language dictionaries. Even though both Faith and Ziva spoke Arabic and would be helping with the project, she felt better if there was something she could do. Ziva immediately took the three documents, now safely shrouded in plastic envelopes, to review and see if she saw something Faith had missed. Faith rarely missed anything, so she wasn't hopeful.

An hour later, they still had nothing that put them any closer to breaking the cipher. McGee had powered up the laptop, and while it had initially started to delete everything on the hard drive, he was able to stop that virus and maintain the feasibility of the initial hard drive. He was absorbed in figuring out what was in the machine and what clues it might provide.

Just as the bomb squad had promised, Gibbs wandered into the lab with two coffees, a chai, a tea and Caf-Pow for Abby. She seemed to lack the energy to bodily attack Gibbs this late in the evening, or maybe it was her disappointment that she didn't have a solution for their current problem. Faith took her chai, rich in cream and sugar, and smiled her thanks at Gibbs.

He wrapped his arms around Faith, openly embracing her and kissing her cheek, letting her know that her fans at the bomb squad had fulfilled their promise and made sure he got all the way inside NCIS. He then had to go out again to get the required gifts of java and tea. She smiled at him and leaned back into him looking up. "Oops, I forgot to tell them that part. Sorry."

Suddenly Faith sat up. "Wait a minute. Abby, I need a long thin mirror. What if we are overlooking the most basic cipher there is? It would explain why none of it makes sense by actually spelling a word." Ziva and Faith tried to read the cipher reflected in the mirror. They were both thinking it couldn't be that easy, but apparently Omar didn't think much of American intelligence. The cipher could be read perfectly using the mirror, and then reversing the paper to get the second part. Abby was so excited they had figured it out, she came over to give Gibbs a big full bodied hug. It was like she was climbing him like a tree, touching all the tree limbs that Faith at least did not want touched. And then when she

kiss/licked his cheek, Faith had enough. Faith's contempt for the inappropriate hugs was easy to hear in her comment as they read the cipher. "Yeah, Abby. Gibbs really needed that full on hug, lick, and kiss since he had so much to do with solving the problem. And why do you feel the need to lick and kiss him anyway, Abby?" Abby was more than a little flustered at Faith's reaction and fell silent. Faith looked at Gibbs, never taking her eyes off of him while she asked Ziva, "Now that we understand the cipher Ziva, do you think you have this covered? The funeral is tomorrow. I'd like to go home."

"Of course, you should be home by now already. You have not even had time to grieve, and yet you bury your brother tomorrow." Ziva shot Gibbs a glare. "Please call me tomorrow if you need anything. You are sure you do not want me to go in your place at the gravesite?"

"Of course not, Ziva. I will take my own bullets, but you are a good friend to offer."

Other than Faith looking at Ziva to refuse her generous offer, Faith and Gibbs eyes had not parted.

"Where will you be staying now? Katie seemed to indicate the town house was ready. " Looking again at Gibbs with another glare, she looked back to Faith. "Will you need a ride to the graveside?"

"I think I have enough cars and drivers with my security detail I don't think I'll need your driving skills, Ziva my dear. Shalom."

"Thank you Abby, Ziva, and McGee for staying late to figure out what we can. I hope to see you at the funeral tomorrow. I don't know when I will be back in. God Speed to you all.

Ziva spoke up. "You never did say where you were staying now."

Faith looked at Ziva and then directly at Gibbs. "Home is where the heart is, Ziva. Home is where the heart is. I'll see you tomorrow. Say a prayer for me Ziva that God will forgive my sins and carry my soul to heaven on the wings of the angels."

"God always takes the good people to heaven, Faith. Your name alone makes you a good person. I will pray. But tomorrow is not the day of your death. Do not think it so. Shalom."

With tears in both sets of eyes, Faith hugged Ziva and turned to walk to the elevator. She heard Gibbs toss his cup and race after her before the doors closed. "Why was Ziva glaring at me? Is she mad at me over something?"

"I don't know Gibbs. Perhaps, because I have been spending my time disarming bombs and hunting terrorists instead of being allowed to grieve, this might cause the glare. Or maybe she senses that you are not going home with me tonight, when I need you the most. That would piss her off, thus the glare. Or that you still have not done anything about Abby and her constant touching of what does not belong to her. Certainly causes me to glare."

"What would have given her the idea that I would not be with you tonight? Where else would I be? And of course I am driving you to the funeral and will be by your side every moment. I told you that I love you and I'm beside you all the way."

" I know. I love you too. Are the marine snipers all in place for tomorrow?"

"Yep, I spoke to Benton on my way back from Omar's place. They are already in place and no one will even see them tomorrow."

"Let's get our stuff and go home, Gibbs. I'm about to drop."

They both stepped out of the elevator and saw Jenny standing impatiently at the opening of MTAC. Faith acknowledged her and went to collect her things.

"Jethro, I know this is a bad time, but I need an update on where we are with everything. You and Faith found a bomb earlier today, a secret coded message, and what is happening with Chao? All of this could affect the SecDef ball. I need a complete update before you leave."

"Jenny, tomorrow is the funeral. Can't this wait until after that?"

"I wouldn't be asking if it could wait. Sorry, Faith. He'll be at least an hour."

Gibbs walked over to Faith, who was determined to hold it together by a thread. She didn't want Jenny, the person she thought was her friend, but who now seemed like one of the many jealous ex-wives and girlfriends still involved in his life, to see her cry. Gibbs started to give her a hug but she pushed him away. "Do what you need to. Come home to where your heart is, wherever that is. The secret service will take me home. If you make it to my door, they'll open it for you. You know which room is mine. Via con Dios, Gunny." Faith turned sharply on her heel and walked out the doors to her waiting escort. Known for their completely impassive faces, they weren't bothering to hide their disdain at his treatment of her. Gibbs noticed she didn't look back either. He could feel her heart breaking all the way through the building.

He knew she was in serious pain when she called him Gunny. She never used that nickname unless she was terrified or really upset. Hell, right now she might be both. If Jenny had an alternative motive in this, she might find herself being buried tomorrow as well, secretly of course.

ISPY ISPY ISPY ISPY ISPY ISPY ISPY ISPY ISPY ISPY ISPY

Gibbs arrived at the town house, "our townhouse" she had called it hours ago. He remembered the warm feeling it had given him at the time: a place, a real home, and the perfect woman to share it with, not just a coffee and boat factory with an occasionally used bed. And as promised, and much to their not well concealed dismay, the security detail let him in, bag, uniform, and all. He silently nodded his head to them and proceeded up to Faith's room. It was considerably past the hour that Jenny had promised. She grilled him about the tiniest detail, asked personal questions he refused to answer, bickered back and forth getting nowhere, and reminded him very much of one of his ex-wives rather than his boss. If she was going to be hostile towards Faith like this, he was going to need to protect Faith even more. If she was going to turn against Faith like this, both he and Faith were going to need out. They supposedly

went way back running ops together and they had, at least at one time, complete trust in each other. The situation had become intolerable overnight. He had undeniably hurt Faith, being forced to choose between work and Faith. He would not hurt her again. No, the situation had to be terminated. He couldn't, he wouldn't live without Faith. That was the final answer.

Gibbs silently opened the bedroom door and slid inside. He saw the light beside her bed was still on, reflecting the light on her swollen and tear streaked face. She was completely without makeup but her hair was brushed to a spectacular reddish gleam. She looked like she had on one of his or Michael's decrepit Marine t-shirts. Scattered around her were pictures, one she still held in her hand. He took his shoes off by the door, and on silent footsteps he placed his new bag next to the bag from the Army-Navy club, hung his uniform up in the closet, and stored his other miscellaneous stuff where it should go. He took a quick shower, donned his boxer-briefs and marine t-shirt and re-entered the bedroom. He gently picked up the pictures scattered around the bed, noticing as expected most of them were of Michael and Faith, Faith and Katie, or Michael and Katie. The three of them were a pretty tight team. There were a few pictures of Ziva and Faith, but unlike the others, they were not dated or marked with names. The last picture he still needed to pick up was the one she held in her hands. As he came around to her side of the bed to get the picture, Faith spoke without opening her eyes or letting go of the picture.

"I guess you decided where your home is."

"You told me that my home was where my heart is. My heart is wherever you are, so here am."

He reached towards her hand to take the picture. "May I?"

"Of course. It is the only picture I have of you and me."

"Why were you holding it crying?"

"I cried tonight over the dead, the living, and you and me. I wasn't sure you would come here. Jenny can be very persuasive when she wants something, and she still wants you, a decade and three ex-wives later. "

"Her behavior tonight reminded me a lot of my ex-wives, even though she wasn't one, she was surely acting that way. She kept me there for mostly nonsense reasons, and I finally left."

"A lot longer than an hour later."

"Yes, it was. And Faith I will never again choose work over you. Jenny will forever be setting that scenario up, trying to get me back with her, but it won't work. I meant it when I told you I love you, and I will love you forever. I will not choose work over you again."

"Does this mean you are going to retire, again?"

"I'm an old man, too old to be dealing with crappy politics, terrorists that want to blow us up, and dead marines and naval officers. It's time I take my leave. When this case is over with, we can retire together."

"And then what old man?"

"Well, I could not keep you in the lifestyle you are accustomed too. Most of my income, before pension, goes to my ex-wives. There isn't much left after that. Other than that, I'd wake up next to you, go to bed next to you, make love to you every night and every morning, and build my boats."

"Well then it is a good thing for you that I'm rich, really, really, rich. Every night and every morning? I like that. Will we need to invest in Viagra stock Old Man?" Gibbs reached over to tickle her, promising when that would be required they would take care of it.

Faith continued after the tickling subsided. "I can buy you your own personal boat yard if you want. Or, we can just put your own private boatyard in the cellar. And you know what Gibbs? I'm going to pay off the ex-wives. One lump sum, and they aren't to ever call or speak to you again. If they do, well, my lawyers will deal with that. I'm sure they can come up with something nasty. And if you want to stay working at NCIS, then I'm sure we can do something about Jenny too. Money talks. Especially in Washington. What do you think?"

"What are you going to be doing in your retirement?"

"I'm going to start a foundation. Hit up some of those fat and happy types and do something good with their money and ours. I don't know what yet, but it should come to me. I also want to have your child, Gibbs. I want us to have a baby together."

"You want to have my baby? Are you sure? You are so much younger than I am."

"Then we better get busy, huh?"

" I had a child once, by my first wife. Her name was Shannon and my daughter was Kelly. Shannon isn't counted in the ex-wife pool. Both she and my daughter were killed. I've never considered having another child with anyone. Until now. I would love for you to have my baby. That right there, that is the best gift you could ever give me."

Faith rolled him from the sitting position he had been in, to a prone position with her on top. She had a big smile on her face as she straddled his muscular body. "You said every night and every morning, Agent Gibbs. I suggest we get started now." She reached down her body and peeled the dilapidated t-shirt off her body, leaving her naked and beautiful. Gibbs looked up at his personal Venus di Milo running his hands over all her creases and crevices, some soft where they should be and others hard like marble. Perfect. He wondered how she would feel as her body softened with pregnancy. It had been so long he had forgotten. But this time, this time he would remember. He would be there and he would remember.

He pulled her forward bringing her lips to his, rolling her under him, crushing her naked body and soft lips to all the roughness of him. She eagerly pulled his shirt off of his muscled, rippled torso, running her fingertips over his muscles and through the graying hair on his chest. She looked at him wickedly from her position under him and lifted herself up to his darkened nipples, placing her mouth on them, one at

a time, and sucking and biting them hard. Gibbs moaned at the long absence of that sensation, piercing pain that went from his nipple to his groin, hardening both his nipple and his manhood. He cried out at the strong feelings as the woman he loved, loved him back.

After feeling that part of his sensitive anatomy was suitably aroused, she rolled him over again so she had the dominant position, kissing her way down his structured abs to the tops of his boxer-briefs. She made quick work of the buttons and slid the briefs off his body. Climbing back up his strong legs, she eagerly sought her prize and was not disappointed. He was large in both length and width and she couldn't wait to taste him and get him inside her. She stretched her arms out over his body, pinning his hands under hers. She took him in her mouth, tasting the salty flavor of him, stroking him with her tongue and the heat of her mouth. She heard him moan again and then suddenly felt herself flipped again onto her back.

"It's been too long Faith. I can't withstand that, and still make love to you. Can we save that delicious delight for a later night, please?"

Faith licked her lips, still tasting the saltiness, but she was ready for the main event. "I love it when the great Gibbs says please. How could I possibly not do as he asks? I'm ready, I've been ready for the main event for what seems like forever. Kiss me Gibbs, taste yourself on my lips. And then make love to me."

Gibbs leaned forward, targeted in on her wet and swollen lips, kissing them gently, licking what was left of his fluid off of her shiny crimson lips. He increased the pressure on her lips, devouring her eager tongue. He moved down her body, kissing her jawline, her neck, and mirroring her actions previously taken on him. He took each nipple in his mouth and sucked, bit and scraped against the sensitive skin. Faith started thrashing as the sensation shot through her body and ended in her most sensitive spot. He reached down between their two bodies and pressed his thumb against her swollen nub, alternately pressing gently and hard as she began moaning and thrashing even more violently. He kept up the motion until he felt her breathing increase rapidly and her muscles tense around him. Staying his thumb temporarily, he slowly pushed his way into her tight walls and began his thumbing motion again. The sensation of his thumb on her swollen nub, and of his generous size sliding through her wetness brought her to her climax, screaming his name, pulling him closer and begging him not to stop. He kept the same motion, rocking his expansiveness all the way in, pounding her hard, hitting her cervix causing her to cry out again. He stopped for a moment and breathlessly asked if she was all right. Her only answer was to buck her hips up to meet his and cry out for "harder and faster." Gibbs was a man who could take orders and he followed them to a "T." She could tell he was close because he started to lose his rhythm, and she begged him to come inside her. She was close enough that she would come again soon and he could follow her over the cliff. He grunted at the strain of holding back, and she smiled and gave him permission to let go. A few more strokes and they both came screaming each other's names and falling over the cliff.

Gibbs fell off to the side of her so he wasn't crushing her, but he didn't want to pull himself away from her yet. They were both breathing heavy and were wet with sweat and bodily fluids. They just laughed at themselves and held each other closer. Suddenly, there was a soft knock on the door. Faith pulled a

gun from under the pillow and suggested that they come in. Gibbs was trying to cover them both up in the sheets before any shoot out started. One of the nighttime secret service detail came walking in softly, with his head hung a little down. "We heard some screaming in here, and we are required to check up on the source. I think I know what the source was and we all acknowledge your apparent skill sir. Screaming your name repeatedly, very impressive Agent Gibbs." Gibbs tilted his head in recognition of the compliment. "But I have to verify that was the screaming that we heard."

"Boys." Faith said in disgust. "We are fine. No one else is here. Now get out. Next time you have to 'verify' I'll shoot the person walking through the door. Understood?"

"Yes, m'am. We'll see you in the morning."

"You guys better not have Katie cooking breakfast for you in the morning. It's her boyfriend we are burying."

"Yes, m'am."

" And quit calling me m'am. I'm not so old I can be your mother. Get out before my mood towards you gets worse."

He left like a beaten dog, which had been what she set out to accomplish.

Gibbs was lying flat on his back and she put the gun away and snuggled close to him. "What are you thinking about Gibbs? Second thoughts?"

"Nope. I'm thinking I must be the luckiest man in the world. I have a beautiful woman who I love and who loves me. We just made love like I haven't in a really long time. And now, I'm ready to go to sleep like I haven't slept in years."

"You are a man of simple pleasures, Jethro. I love you. Good night."

* * *

**Chapter 10: Faith my hope and my love**

* * *

I Spy

Chapter 10

Faith, My Hope and My Love

Gibbs had been up since 0500, but didn't want to leave the bed he shared with Faith, so he laid there long enough to fall back to sleep, with her curled around his still naked body. Once the clock reached 0900, he kissed her awake. She could feel his hardness pressed against her under the sheets and she was hoping for a quickie, but he had a little something different in mind. Gibbs disentangled himself from Faith, but left her chest down with her face turned to face him. His hands traced patterns over her body, seeking to touch all parts of her. His fingers passed over the side of her breast, along her ribs, tracing down the bumps on her spinal column. He ran his fingers lightly across her back and down her bottom. The mere touch of Gibbs was enough to generate a heat in Faith, like nothing she ever experienced. The touch of Gibbs in her most sensitive areas set her on fire. He reached his fingers down across her ass and placed first one finger and then a second inside her overheated sheath, dampness leaking out from her onto his fingers. He started pumping his fingers in and out, slowly and then speeding up, holding her down to keep her immobile.

"Faith, I'm going to keep doing this, but I don't want you to come. I'm going to pump you until you are so wet that I want you leaking out of yourself all day, thinking of what happens to you when I touch you."

"I can't do this. I need you to let me come, please Jethro. Today of all days I can't be left without release. Make me come over and over, I'll still be wet enough to leak between my legs. When we get home you can clean it up, lick it up, shower me off, whatever you want. Please."She was begging, which, other than with Gibbs, she never did, and he knew it.

"Ok, but since you begged I'm going to have to punish you later. Ok?"

"Perfect. I'll make it worth your while Gibbs. When we get home, you can punish me as you see fit."

She knew that by giving him permission, he could really hurt her if he wanted to. But she had discovered she liked to be spanked, and she trusted him to make it hurt, which turned her on, but not leave any permanent marks.

"Let's go get in our shower, my love. Time is ticking away. Don't make me regret letting you sleep in."

Faith turned the shower on to warm up the water, while they both brushed their teeth. Gibbs loved the ten headed shower. Get inside of that and you were definitely going to get clean. "You wanna share, Gibbs? There is plenty of room." Her teasing was ceaseless, and he wouldn't have it any other way. It

was just more fuel for the fire between them. He was already heading for the showers, dragging her with him.

"I get you to wash you first, Gibbs and then turnabout is fair play. Ok?"

"You get to soap me up and clean all the little cracks and crevices? And then I get to do the same to you?"

"That was my plan, but we don't have all day. The limos leave at 1030."

"Ok, let's get playing."

Faith poured the sandalwood scented soap onto a pouf and started scrubbing Gibbs all over. Being the thorough individual that she was, she started with his hair, which she had convinced him to get a better more expensive hair cut. She worked her way around his face down his muscled shoulders and across his well defined chest. As she went lower on his body, she added more soap and dropped the pouf in favor of her hands. He was leaning against the shower wall, allowing the cool tile to support his weight while his knees got weaker as her hands provided the perfect ministrations. Her soapy hands took his strong and potent length and she guided her hands up and down the length and thickness, providing just the right pressure to make Gibbs shake his head from side to side moaning and cursing softly. Faith kept up the motion watching Gibbs go slowly out of his mind. Caught vulnerable as she focused on her sensitive mission, Gibbs changed the undertaking quickly by pinning her against the wall, rubbing the pouf, now filled with her unique jasmine scent, all along her body, washing her long hair in the shampoo version of the body wash. The shower scented now with the masculine scent of sandalwood and the feminine scent of jasmine. The two smells together were completely intoxicating. Gibbs reached between Faith's legs, rubbing and thrusting the jasmine body soap he had poured on his hands, cleaning as promised every crack and crevice. As his fingers found her dripping sheath and already swollen nub, he went to work, rubbing the nub over and over with his forefinger, and pushing his other fingers further and further into her sheath. Now was her turn to hold herself against the cool tiles, concentrating on not letting her knees fail her. The more he rubbed, the more she thrashed and moaned against the tile. Finally, Gibbs took mercy on her and lifted her in his strong arms, spreading her legs and gently pushing himself all the way in without stopping. Faith almost screamed in response to his length and width being shoved, albeit gently, into her sensitive sheath. He positioned himself so that every stroke in hit the swollen and overly sensitize nub, and the stroke on the way out hitting Faith's g-spot. She was in so much pleasure she was close to fainting.

"Faith, you can't faint on me, baby. It's not much longer and you and I both will come screaming, ok. Are you with me? Should we stop?"

That jolted her awake fully. "Stop and I will shoot you, Gibbs. I am not joking."

"That's my girl." He pumped slowly and then sped up and then slowed down. The intensity of the building orgasm for Faith was like nothing she had ever experienced. She dropped her thrashing head onto Gibbs' shoulder, asking him to go harder and faster. "Hurry. I'm almost there." Faith rarely swore,

but there was a string of whispered curses finding their way from her mouth to his ears, which caused him to move even faster and pound her harder against the shower wall. He was starting to lose his rhythm, showing her how close he was. She finally spilled her orgasm out of her sheath, vaginal muscles tightening a death grip on Gibbs, her mouth biting his shoulder painfully, causing him to scream his own release, and spilling his seed into her ready body. He held her against the wall, but finally slid them both down to the floor of the shower, letting the water wash them clean. They held each other tight, Faith unwilling to let Gibbs pull out of her. She wanted to stay there forever but too many people were waiting for them. Before they reluctantly moved out of the shower, Faith told him that he was the most amazing lover she had ever had. "And, I think we just made a baby, Gibbs. Try not to let me get killed. But just in case I die, know that I love you more than anyone or anything in the whole world."

Gibbs looked at her with tears in his eyes. "You will not die today, and not for a long time. You are Magnificat, the Blessed Mother, the Great Woman. I am truly blessed to have you in my life and I refuse to let you go. And if you are carrying my child, all the more reason for us to retire and do something else. Just disappear. How does Mexico sound?"

"I was thinking a private tropical island, no one would ever find us there. What do you think?"

**Chapter 11: Faith 's Hope Meets Some Ghosts**

* * *

A/N: As you may remember from Chapter 10, I have brought Ari back from the dead. Since the author's of the show provided no rationale for Ari's behavior in Twilight, Kill Ari 1 &amp; 2, I remain equally unforthcoming about how he returns from the dead. I do however maintain his ambivalence at least through this chapter. I loved this character and was thrilled to be able to bring him back. Who would kill off a character of such depth, honor to his own code, and suffrage of his conflicted passions? They could have done so much with him as a recurring character. On another note, caution prevails towards the end of this chapter as sex and language come to the forefront. Not quite fierce enough to rate the chapter an M, especially since it is such a small part of the entire chapter, but worthy of a warning for those with sensitivities. (Gibbs/Faith). Again, if you recognize the characters, I don't own them, just taking them out to play. Really want to play with Ari and Gibbs at the same time. Hey! It's my story, who knows?

I Spy

Chapter 11

Faith's Hope Meets Some Ghosts

Faith's phone rang, again with a call block. She picked it up and answered with a brusque "Hello."

She motioned for McGee to start tracing and she put it on speakerphone, and motioned for everyone else to be silent. A deep soft male voice with a slight accent spoke into the phone. "It was a lovely ceremony today, my Faith, my hope and my love." Faith went pale and sat down suddenly in a nearby chair. "You looked particularly striking, but of course you always do. Since you have returned to work, I take it you were not seriously hurt by the bullets? I was very concerned. They were very intent on killing you. Do you know who this is yet my beloved? Do you still think of me as your soul mate? Is my sister with you?" Faith looked frantically at Ziva, and they both asked simultaneously, "Ari?"

"Yes, my beloved. Or should I make that plural to include my sister, even though she tried to kill me? I think beloved will cover both of the important women in my life. Although Faith, you know you are so much more to me. Was the description of 'ghost from your past' adequate?"

Gibbs looked like he was about to blow a gasket, his normally tanned face was red and he was getting ready to start yelling. Faith reached a hand through the buttons on his shirt to touch his skin. It had the effect of immediately calming him down. She signed to him to please let her handle this. His turn would come soon, in the interrogation room where he does his best work.

Reassured that Gibbs was calm once again, Faith returned her attention to the phone, "You son of a bitch, or rather son of a bastard. Ari's mother was quite nice. Who are you really? Ari Hasawari is dead. Where are you? And who is the second 'ghost' from our past?"

"You remember my father so well, Faith, an apt description indeed. As for who I am, I have already given you the single most significant clue that I am who I say I am. The second ghost is right here with me, and he would very much like to speak to you. It has been selfish of me to want you only to myself."

"Hello, Faith, little sister."

Faith's voice was utterly cold and unsurprised. "I buried Michael today. Who are you?"

"You buried the brave man pretending to be me, plastic surgery, DNA manipulation, the works. Ari and I did this to protect you, our main cause for living."

"Bullshit. You both know I can take care of myself, and I have the resources, power, and money to disappear instantly if I had to. You did this for some other reason, but not to protect me. And the man we buried as you, Michael. Do you know how he suffered? Besides being chemically tortured, killed, and revived repeatedly, they turned his penis into ground meat. In the end, he killed himself with cyanide. I found him in your apartment, and obviously believed him to be you. If you were so worried about me, you would have messaged me about the danger, to both you and me. We have code words set up for this. If you knew Ari was alive, and you were working together you would have coded that to me as well. Whether you are Michael or not, you have become some sort of bastard, unlike my brother."

"We needed you to stay where you were. The secret service was all over you, as was Gibbs, in more ways than one. He would see that nothing was going to happen to you. You had already foreseen the sniper danger at the funeral and handled that. You were never in any real danger, until now. You have already spoken with the Secretary. You know we are who we say we are."

Faith responded again with the flat ice cold voice. "No we don't. Before you get inside these doors, you have to prove to me that you are who you say you are. I'm going to ask you questions, of which there is only one answer. Get the answer wrong, and a marine sharp shooter will take you out. Ziva and I know you best, and we will decide if you are who you claim to be. Ari, you first. On the night we met, describe what I was wearing and what happened that made it memorable."

"We met at the Israeli Embassy Ball. You were wearing a white, virtually see through dress that wrapped around you like a mummy's wrapping. Each section could be moved so skin could be touched, breasts could be suckled, fingers could explore. I, being the arrogant and bewitched man that I was, snatched you away from your conversation with the President of Israel, of all people, and proceeded to lead you around the dance floor. We made such a beautiful couple on the dance floor, it was practically cleared so people could watch the two of us dance so perfectly together. There was no more a beautiful sight than you in that tight, almost sheer dress with the streamers flowing around our feet. But, I unfortunately had to ruin it, my only excuse being that I was bewitched by your beauty. I tried to grope those beautiful, perfectly sized and shaped breasts. (Faith noticed every eye at the table turn to look at her breasts.) You pulled a dagger out of seemingly nowhere and held it to my throat, drawing blood. I still carry the scar as a symbol of your love."

"And what did you say to me with the knife at your throat?"

"I told you in French, whispering in your ear so no one would hear, that 'vous etiez man Foi, mon espoir, et mon amour (you are my Faith, my hope, and my love). Si je devais mourir par votre main, je pourrais

thnk sans meilleure mort, mail j'avais espere te faire l'amour d'abord (If I was to die by your hand, I could think of no better death, but I had hoped to make love to you first.) You then licked the seeping blood until it stopped bleeding. I have never told anyone those words. They are our code words to each other, to know we are who we say we are."

Faith was still sitting in the nearby chair, while the blood left her face. She whispered, looking at Ziva, "It's him." Ziva reached for the phone, told Ari they were going to mute the phone, and they would be back to him shortly. Gibbs walked slowly, almost fearfully, over to Faith. "What did he say to you? I speak some French, but couldn't catch it all."

"I'll tell you the long version tonight. Ok?" She looked around the room with all the eyes staring at her, and looked back to Gibbs. "Jethro, please? Suffice it to say that so far I have every reason to believe he is exactly who he says he is."

Gibbs looked around the room and decided to let it go for a more private time. "Ok, we'll finish it later. But we will finish it." Faith nodded quietly, took a deep breath and turned the phone back on.

"Ari, put Michael on. I have a question for him now." She was glad that her voice returned strong and in control.

"Hi Faith. I wonder how many people in that room speak French and could follow what was being said? It is pretty intense with you and Ari, even over the phone, but then things always have been between you. You really are soul mates, you know? There never will be another for you or him. At least that is true for him, I know. Do you know that I don't think he has been with a woman since you except courtesans that he pays to dress up like you or women he is whoring for information? There has been no love for him since you left."

The group heard a heated exchange between Michael and Ari in Hebrew before Michael returned to the phone. "Faith, I apologize for characterizing Ari's use of women in that way. He does not want you to think of him like that."

"Yeah, Michael, I got the exchange. I speak Hebrew fluently as well. But then the real Michael and Ari would know that. As for Ari and his women, or lack thereof, well, that is a sad waste of an amazing man even if that man is of two minds. I never pictured Ari as the sort to pine away for a single woman, when he could have so many. Enough of Ari, it is your turn. Michael, I want you to tell me the biggest secret that we share. Get it wrong and you are a dead man. You both are already in the sniper's crosshairs."

There was a significant pause before he responded. "You are sure that you want me to share that with all your friends there?"

"If you have the right secret, you can choose what language to share it in."

"Since everyone else has used French, and it is such an appropriate language for this story, I will continue the trend. Je me suis eleve vers le haut de notre maison d'arbre. J'avais 16 and et vous aviez 15 ans. Vous aviez ete la lecture une de ces livres sexe-remplis de vampire pour les femmes sexe-

affamees. (I climbed up our tree house. I was 16 and you were 15. You had been reading one of those sex filled vampire books for the sex starved woman. ) How far do you want me to go, Faith?"

"Go far enough so I know it is you and not an imposter."

"Vous avez voulu essayer l'échange du sang tandis que je vous jugeais au doigt à un orgasme. Vous ne pourriez pas sembler y arriver tout seul. Le genre de de feindre le sexe de vampire, avec l'orgasme criard essayé pour aller avec lu (You wanted to try the exchange of blood while I tried to finger you to an orgasm. You couldn't seem to get there on your own. Kind of pretend vampire sex, with the attempted screaming orgasm to go along with it.)"

Ziva and Abby were standing there, shock on their faces, having understood every word Michael had said. "Hold on a second Michael, I'm putting you on mute."

"That is sooo hot, in a sick incestuous very hot sort of way, Faith. I mean, I knew you and Gibbs had a pretty unconventional and robust sex life, but to think your kink started way back then. Wow."

"So you think of me differently now Abby? Who safer to experiment with at that age than your fantastically good looking brother? And at a later time, I want to know how and what you know about Gibbs, me, and our sex life."

"I definitely want to party with you. We could go goth and what a scene we could make." Faith looked at Gibbs with a smirk on her face. "Let's get back to it then."

"Ok, Michael. We are back. Remember your French when appropriate. What was I wearing? What color?"

" Sous très peu shorts roses de Madras, avec une lanière rose. Les shorts étaient assez courts vous n'ont pas dû devenir déshabillés pour que je glisse mon doigt entre vos plis vraiment humides. Je me rappelle que je n'ai eu aucune idée ce que je faisais et allais certainement à l'enfer, mais vous étiez si beau et avez ainsi mouillé, je juste avez dû essayer. (Very short pink madras shorts, with a pink thong. The shorts were short enough you didn't have to get undressed for me to slide my finger between your really wet folds. I remember I had no idea what I was doing and I was certainly going to hell, but you were so beautiful and so wet, I just had to try.)"

"M'avez-vous incite a venir? Avons-nous partage le sang? (Did you make me come? Did we share blood?)"

"Si vous ne le truquiez pas, je suis embarrassé pour dire je ne peux pas encore dire quand les articles truqués d'une femme il, je pensent que vous êtes venu. Et après nous avons partagé le sang. Je porte toujours votre fiole plaquée argentée avec moi. C'était la première fois que j'ai jamais incité une femme à venir. Nous avons continué de pratiquer de diverses versions que tout l'été long jusqu'à nous a obtenu vraiment bon aux orgasmes et aux travaux hallucinants de coup. Et je vais vraiment et vraiment à l'enfer. La manière qu'Ari me regarde en ce moment, il peut être plus tôt que plus tard. Ne peut pas attendre pour voir le visage de Gibbs. Je suis supposant nous viens dans sans armes? (If you weren't

faking it, I'm embarrassed to say I still can't tell when a woman fakes it, I think you did come. And afterwards we did share blood. I still carry your silver clad vial with me. That was the first time I ever made a woman come. We continued practicing various versions all summer long until we both got really good at mind blowing orgasms and blow jobs. And I will really and truly go to hell. The way Ari is looking at me right now, it may be sooner rather than later. Can't wait to see Gibbs' face. I'm assuming we are coming in unarmed?)"

"Yes, you will be. Drive under the autopsy cover. Guards will be there to take your weapons and bring you up here for DNA testing . See you in a bit." Faith disconnected the phone. "Abby, get your shop rocking. I want compete DNA idents on both before anyone leaves today. You can use Ziva and me as exemplars."

Faith spoke into the commike on shoulder and in her ear. "Col. Benton. Strip search, as well as cavity search our visitors. Escort them to the lab, and leave some appropriate guards here. Then search their bags, linings, everything including their car. Check for bugs, weapons, and ordinances. Thank you."

"We are on it m'am."

Gibbs had been watching Faith throughout the conversations. "I thought by letting them in you believe they were who they said they were?"

"They have very good, very strong and accurate stories that no one but me and each of them know about. Their stories are true. That doesn't mean I trust them, especially not with those I love. And if I find out they aren't who they should be, but know these stories, the most intimate stories of my life, I will kill them myself in the slowest and most painful way I can come up with. And you, of all people, know that Ari is ambivalent in his loyalties. I believe he is loyal to me, but that doesn't mean much given what we are dealing with now."

"It doesn't sound like they would hurt you. They both love you very much."

"Maybe not, but what about you, or Ziva, or Abby? Even Tony, over there trying to translate French to English because Ziva and Abby won't tell him the big secret. He knows it's hot, and it is driving him crazy not knowing. I could just tell him, but this is so much more fun. I won't risk any of you for them."

"Are you going to tell me?" Gibbs sounded so vulnerable and scared.

Faith stood up slowly rubbing her body along his as she came to the fullness of her tiny height. She wrapped her arms around his waist and pulled him into the elevator, flipping the emergency switch as soon as the elevator started to move. She wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling his ear to her mouth. "I don't keep secrets from you Jethro, unless you don't want to know, then I will protect you from them with my life. You are not going to like what you learn today, nor are you going to like having them living with us until this is over, nor are you going to like having Ari anywhere near me. Trust me on that. We are combustible together. For all of those dislikes and the pain it causes you, you can spank me, or whip me, or whatever you feel the need to do to me to release your anger. I trust you. Do you trust me?"

"Je te fais confiance complètement, même avec mon Coeur (I trust you completely, even with my heart.)"

Faith's eyebrows shot up at Gibbs' French. "I think someone has been keeping secrets, and it wasn't me. You know exactly what was said. "

"Let's just say I understood more than a little bit. And yes, I will be spending the afternoon thinking about your appropriate punishment. You have been a very bad girl."

"Yes, I have. But we'll have to put the well deserved and well desired punishment off until this case is over. Agreed?"

"Agreed. That just gives me more time to consider my options." Faith rewarded him with a shiver and a heated look, pressing her body against his.

"Ms. Worthington, our guests are here."

Faith looked at Gibbs, gave him a little sexy purr and a lingering deep kiss before releasing the elevator. Once the doors opened, she turned her attention to their guests. Ari and Michael both moved towards Faith and everyone else moved to intercept. There was quickly a standstill. Ari finally spoke up and asked for permission to approach Faith. Accompanied by guards she allowed him to approach her, and when she held out her arms, he practically fell into them. He hugged her and held her close for much longer than Gibbs was comfortable. It had been years since they had seen each other, and being in each others' arms again was very satisfying. Faith recognized the smell of him under the same light cologne he had worn for her before. Her body had muscle memory of being held in his arms, his hardened body crushed against hers, his breath smelling of cardamom and mint. She knew this was Ari, her Ari. But what he was fighting for she could not tell. Were those wonderfully kind and soft bedroom eyes that looked at her as if she hung the moon and the stars for real? Or were they just for pretend? After the DNA test, there was nothing left to do but trust in him and his love for her.

"Shalom, my love."

"Shalom, Ari."

After their passionate embrace, he turned to Ziva, greeting her and speaking to her in Hebrew. Faith was able to eavesdrop on their conversation, and they both knew it. Everyone else stood around wondering what to do.

Michael approached Faith, taking her in his arms in relief. He apologized for what he had put her through the last few days. Faith reminded him that he had a fiancé at home and that he really had some making up to do. And if, under the circumstances he did not plan to marry her after all, he needed to break it off with her immediately… no booty call, tonight or any night. Katie had a procession of very worthwhile Marines lining up at her door now that he was gone, and he needed to set her free if his intentions were no longer the same. If he took advantage of her, Faith assured him that she would shoot him herself, and he won't be having any sex with anyone again, ever.

With the end of that conversation, Faith asked everyone to join around the conference table. While everyone took their place, she asked them to briefly introduce themselves. Then proceeded directly to the bioweapon expert, Abby and McGee to find out what we knew. They believed that it was inert until mixed with water and dispersed through the air like a fine mist. Faith asked Tony to find out about the arrangements at the party, if there was a mister or water feature that could be used. What the air circulation situation was, etc. Gibbs asked the three experts, and included the two new additions to the party, to describe what the toxin would do. Ari took the lead on this question. "Once the gas has been vaporized and inhaled, the lungs start to bleed, as do the tissue involved in inhalants like the nose, mouth, and eyes. Death is very painful and very quick. There is no antidote."

There was total silence at the table, and then Abby started to cry. "I don't want anyone of us to die. I'm still not over Kate," she gave a quick and confused look at Ari.

Ziva stepped in with the practical questions. "We know how it will have to be dispersed, and what it can do. But do we know how much we are dealing with? Is what we have all there is?"

Ari reached across the table and took Abby's hand. "I know that no one at this table believes me, but I did not kill Caitlyn." He then turned back to the table to answer Ziva's questions. "As for how much we are dealing with… about 10g. What you have in that pouch is only about 10g but we don't know how much more they have access to. They intend to wipe out everyone at the party. 10g, dispersed correctly, would be enough. But we think we are in possession of most of the toxin, and I don't know what else they are able to access."

Gibbs jumped on the last statement. "Who is they?"

Ari responded calmly, not wanting to escalate Gibbs' already inflamed temper. "This is a splinter group of Al-Queda. The cell is operating in the US, with US citizens. Given this Ball, they have decided on their own that this is the time and place to attack."

"Are the two of you still trusted by the cell? Can you still get intel on their delivery mechanism?"

Michael spoke up this time. "Ari had close association with the group. He was sleeping with one of the female cell members and she provided him most of the information through pillow talk." Faith looked at Ari and then looked away, a blank look on her face. Michael ignored Faith's look, and Ari's pained response. "We also have microbugs and computer viruses to provide us with data. It is to dangerous for us to return to the cell."

"Thanks Michael," Ari sarcastically commented to him.

"Ari, brother, she no longer loves you, at least not you alone. It is time for you to move on with your life. When this mission is accomplished, we should retire to a far away island with a lot of beautiful women so you can forget my sister."

"Can we please get back on topic? Michael and Ari, I need you to both work your separate sources to find out how much more Toxin there is out there. McGee can help you get the bugs and computers

downloaded to ours. It will be a standalone, connected directly to your ops, but with no connection to the government and NCIS. Got it, McGee? Once we know more, we arrest the entire cell and bring them down, alive or dead, I don't much care. Ziva will work with you and help on the translation. Col. Mann. Army CID has better labs for testing chemical toxins, and potentially developing an antidote. Can you let our bioweapon engineer work with your engineers to develop more information and a possible antitoxin?"

"Finally find a use for me and the CID, Faith?"

Faith smiled at her. "I guess so. Will you help?"

"Of course." Mann looked at the bioweapons expert. "Meet me at the Army gate at 0800. We'll work around the clock."

"Col. Benton, can you provide security here and all the way inside the CID lab, please? Thank you."

"And what will you and Gibbs be doing?" Col. Mann asked.

"Not that it is any of your business, but we'll be having wild monkey sex in the elevator. Better plan on taking the stairs everyone."

The whole room erupted in laughter and cut the tension dramatically.

"Anyone who doesn't have an assignment, or even if you do but it is too early to get started, meet here at 0700. Get some sleep. There are tubs of lasagna for dinner tonight at 0018 at the townhouse. Please join us if you would like. It's time to break this up and come back refreshed in the morning."

Abby slipped two pieces of paper in front of Faith. She looked down and the DNA was spot on the money for Ari to be Ziva's ½ brother and for Michael to be Faith's full brother. "You're sure Abby? It hasn't been manipulated? This is true?"

"Yes, Faith, even if you weren't already sure based on their stories, the DNA does not lie. There are no markers that might show any alteration. They are who they say they are."

"Now to find out if you fight on our side or theirs."

Abby asked, "Don't you mean on the side of good or evil?"

Faith smiled gently at Abby, and then looked at Ari and Michael, her eyes filled with pain and love. "I am not so naïve as to believe that in this war there is good or evil. Good or evil is a perspective, a point of view. We want to think in terms of absolutes because it is easier and we feel more self-righteous. These men, Michael and Ari, are good men, or at least they were when they last held a place in my heart. But if now they fight on the other side, they believe they fight a good fight, not that they fight for evil. It is complicated, and anyone who wants to boil it down to 'we are absolutely right and they are absolutely wrong' is too simplistic to be effective, and I don't want them on this team. The real question to be asked and answered is where their hearts are now, politically, but more importantly, to whom their

hearts are devoted. They will fight where their hearts belong, whether on our side or the other side. Perhaps Gibbs' formidable interrogation skills can decipher the philosophy involved."

Faith gave a tired sigh, rubbing her head where the bullet had hit her earlier that day. The pain was becoming a problem this late in the day, and she wanted to go home. "Gibbs will interrogate you tomorrow morning. Be here at 0700." Faith looked at Gibbs. "Fornell, you can assist, and keep him from killing them. Good for you Gibbs?"

"Good for me, but I feel kinda sorry for Fornell. He's going to have the toughest job of all."

Faith gave him a weak smile. "Just imagine your shared ex-wife. That should provide suitable motivation. Can't kill her, can't live with her, and you both have to keep paying her alimony."

Faith looked around the table at the tired and worn faces. She knew they would stay all night if she asked, but tonight there was no need and she would not ask. "I'm going home. I've buried someone I thought was my brother, been shot twice, found two ghosts from my past and on whose side I'm not sure of, haven't eaten, and am now ready to go home, have a hot bath and some even hotter sex." Everyone looked at Gibbs with raised eyebrows. He simply shrugged his shoulders, smiled like the cat who ate the canary, and went to pull out Faith's chair. "I encourage you to do so as well. Come by for lasagna and wine in a bit, some after dinner dancing and I'm sure our jocks will play some sweaty ball. Be careful going home. God Speed."

I

Gibbs and Faith arrived home safely under the continued protection of a Marine guard and the secret service. Faith had phoned ahead of time letting Katie know that Michael was alive, and Ari was coming home as well. We would need two more guest rooms for Michael and Ari. Katie, bless her heart, suggested that Michael stay with her, but Faith refused that suggestion and had Katie get him a separate room. Before Katie saw Michael, Faith updated her on the current suspicions and really did not want her to sleep with her alleged fiancé until it was all sorted out.

Before Ari and Michael arrived, Gibbs dragged Faith to their room to try to get her to rest. He drew a warm bath, lit dozens of candles, and kept the lights down to help with the obvious pain in her head. He then climbed in the tub with her, placing her in front of him so she could lean back on his chest and completely relax. He gave her a much overdue pain pill, and the heat of the water helped soothe the intense headache from the bullet indentation. He was angry that while she had been shot twice today, and under other circumstances she would be in the hospital, she had been asked to lead an almost impossible task force under unbearable circumstances. And yet, she had not complained once today, although she had been a bit bitchy in her jealous outbursts. That pleased him. He liked that he could make her jealous. God knew, she could surely make him jealous.

"Do you believe that Ari is your soul mate?"

He felt for a change in position or speeding up of her heart rate, but there was none. Gibbs felt he had to know the answer.

"Why do you want to know?" Faith was completely relaxed and she wasn't going to get too excited about a situation that was out of her control.

"I love you Faith, more than life itself. But I also realize I am not the only one who feels that way about you. If you still love Ari, and believe him to be your soul mate, I will let you go and be with him."

"But you just said you loved me. Why would you send me away or let me go? Why would you not fight for me?"

"I would kill for you. But if you love another, more than me, than I will let you go to him if that is what would make you happy."

"Jethro, I love you. I want to have your baby. I want to learn to build your boats, but I will NOT burn the ones I work on." Faith rolled around to face Gibbs, wrapping her arms around his neck. "Jethro LeRoy Gibbs, will you marry me? For better or worse? Richer or poorer? I want to be your 5th wife, and your last."

"You really want to marry me? After I am such a bastard? When I'm so much older than you?"

"Well, you haven't been a bastard to me yet, so yes. And I have more money than we could ever use, some of which I'm going to use to get rid of those ex-wives, for good. And I'm sure we are going to have a baby, I can feel it. Some women can you know, my mother was like that. And for a man so much older than me, you make me feel like I have never felt before. And you can certainly keep up, in every way. So, are you going to marry me or not?"

Gibbs laughed at Faith's persistence. He really did love her more than life itself. "Yes, Faith. I will marry you, with much joy in my heart. But I don't want to tell anyone until I get you a ring. It won't be a big ring like you deserve, but it will be from me to you."

"Let's get out of the tub. I have something for you." All the sudden she was feeling much better.

She dragged a still toweling off Gibbs into their bedroom, letting go of him long enough to walk over to the nightstand and pull out a box. She fluffed the silver bow and handed him the black box. "This is for you."

He took the box from her with a puzzled look, opening it slowly like it contained a scorpion or something equally unpleasant. Faith looked at him. "Oh please. Where is my big bad brave marine now?"

He scowled at her and finally pulled the lid off. Inside lay a black American Express card with his name on it. He looked at her questioningly. "Jethro, that is your own personal black AMEX card. Between the two of us, we have to spend at least 250,000 a year to keep it. Since I of course, have not had any trouble doing that on my own, I figure we won't have any trouble together. Don't worry, I never see a bill, and you can buy whatever you want on the card. There is no limit to what you can spend. You can buy me an engagement ring, you can buy a car or a boat, whatever you want. It's yours. Happy Engagement Day."

"Wow. How long have you been planning this?"

"I don't know, a while. You don't like it do you?"

"I like that it will let me buy you really nice things. Money itself means very little to me."

"Jethro, you make me happy. I know that the whole money thing isn't important to you, but the lack of it to buy me nice things does bother you. Hence the card. Don't use it if you don't want to. I don't really care. It's yours. I love you and now we are going to get married. That is all that matters."

Faith heard voices entering the house. "Yikes, we better get dressed to meet our guests. " She turned away from him to find something to wear.

"Faith, I love you, and you make me happy too. I want nothing more than to marry you and to stay with you for the rest of my life."

She turned back around and smiled at him. "Let's go meet our friends."

Gibbs gave her a slight leer. "Not quite yet, my love. How is your head?"

"Good. Why?"

"Because after hearing all those romantic and slutty things you have done with other men, I want to fuck you hard against that wall so you don't forget who you belong to at dinner."

"Oh, my old man! Needing to show your dominance as alpha male amid all the other alphas? I like it, but we have to hurry though. Can you make it one of those pounding, grinding quickies? Those are the best kind, and my mushy insides will definitely keep you on my mind, Jethro."

He leaned her back against the wall and came down to her mouth, decisively possessing her lips and her tongue. "I think we can cover that. Remember that while every man out there wants you, and we both know it, you belong to me, and to me only."

A few minutes later, there was almost simulcast pounding in the room. Gibbs pounding Faith against the wall, rattling the pictures in time with each thrust. At the same time, a pounding on the door calling for their attention. Gibbs stopped moving, but kept Faith where she was. She responded to the door with a laugh in her voice. "Yes?"

Ari's voice responded with a half growl, half laugh. " قد وصل ضيفاتك, ي محبوبة. بينما أنت يكون يكون سوندلي فوك, سيكون نحن كلّ يأكل ويشرب طعامك. نا فقط أمنية أنّ كان هو أنت نحن كنّا يأكل, يشرب, و فوك. (Your guests have arrived, my beloved. While you are being soundly fucked, we will all be eating and drinking your food. Our only wish is that it was you we were eating, drinking, and fucking.)"

Faith laughed out loud. "Ari, you are outrageous. Leave us now and we will join you soon. Unless of course, you want to stand outside the door and listen to Gibbs fuck me senseless. This is just a quickie so we will be out soon." Faith started to move against the wall, pulling Jethro into her harder and

deeper. Gibbs picked up the pounding rhythm again, bringing them rapidly to their breathless conclusions. As Faith caught her breath as her sheath continued to spasm, squeezing Gibbs while he remained inside of her, she gave Gibbs an update on what Ari had said in Arabic. "Ari is jealous. Surprised? He wanted us to know that our guests had arrived, and that while I was being soundly fucked, 'we will all be eating and drinking your food. Our only wish is that it was you we were eating, drinking and fucking.'"

Gibbs laughed and released her to put her feet on the ground. "Well, he definitely has balls."

"Yes. No one could ever accuse him of not being a major alpha male, and making his stake at what he wants. Which is what he was doing obviously. Most, even alphas, would have just slinked past the door, leaving us to it. I gotta shower quickly and get dressed."

"Yeah, we'll both shower quickly. But I want you to wear that knee-length black sleeveless fitted cotton thing that is backless and looks like it might be a nightgown. And no bra or underwear, not even a thong. You can go barefoot or wear high heels. Your choice."

"What are you thinking my dear Jethro? People, especially the men, will be able to tell what I'm not wearing. And then barefoot and pregnant?"

"I know. But you are mine, not theirs. I just want to rub it in their face."

"Especially Ari's?"

Especially. And he'll know we are going to come back to our room and make love, again, and he cannot touch you. Does he know about your little punishment fetish?"

"No! That is for no one but you, Jethro."

"Well, we might just give him a taste of what he lost tonight. Besides, it might help in the interrogation tomorrow."

"You are being a bastard now. I've given you control in the bedroom. I suppose this is part of the bedroom. I'll play along with you, but when I'm ready to go, we go. Ok? It's been an excruciatingly long day to play games all night. Besides Ari isn't the only one there. I have to work with these people. If they think of me as your slut punishment puppy, they will never respect me again."

"True, a fine line to walk. I'll tread carefully. Shall we?"

* * *

**Chapter 12: A Dance is Not Always a Dance**

* * *

I Spy

Chapter 12

A Dance is not Always a Dance

Faith heard the loud, but friendly, voices coming from the backyard. Earlier in the day, Katie had tables and chairs set up, and of course the secret service swept everything for weapons and bugs. Faith was starting to like having the secret service around. The lasagna, salad, and wine were served inside, with all the casually dressed teammates sitting outside enjoying the last vestiges of sunshine. Beer and bourbon were of course also available. Music played in the background, mostly oldies but goodies, much to Abby's chagrin. Faith set her food and wine down between Ari and Gibbs and then sat in the comfortable chair to eat. The lasagna was delicious as Katie's food always was. Ziva, Abby, and Tony were also sitting at the table. Surprisingly, the conversations at the various tables were friendly and in some cases raucous, everyone letting off steam in whatever way they could. Faith had asked everyone to speak English out of respect for those who didn't speak nine different languages.

Katie and Michael walked shyly up to the wooden dance floor, planning to spend some time to reconnect. Ziva and Tony joined them shortly, and then Gibbs and Faith. Gibbs didn't like dancing very much, and knew there were many who would take his place on the dance floor once he vacated it.

Tony soon was yelling over the music at Gibbs. "Hey Boss, let's toss the ball around." Both men were serious athletes in years past so there was always a constant competition between them. Gibbs looked at Faith and smiled at her smirk. "Ok, fine. But I'm going to dance. I'm sure Ari will dance with me."

"Just dance my love, just dance."

"Ah, but Jethro, remember what you asked me to wear? Ari will surely confirm his suspicions holding me close. Enjoy your football game as I shall enjoy catching up with Ari. He is an excellent dancer." Gibbs was torn about leaving her to Ari who would surely scoop her up on the dance floor, and the competition of the pigskin. In the end, he decided he was not going to be afraid of Ari and he went over to turn on the floodlights to play a little ball tossing.

As soon as Gibbs left her on the dance floor, Faith slowly walked over to Ari, who watched every inch of her every inch of the way. Just watching him watching her made her hot. When she had warned Gibbs earlier about the combustible heat between her and Ari, she had not been kidding. Steam was practically visible in the space between them. She would soon have an idea of what watching her did for him. "Ari, would you like to dance with me? My partner seems to have abandoned me for a football. Not the most flattering of things to be dumped for. I must be losing my touch."

Ari, smiling in anticipation of holding her again, stood and took her hand to lead her back to the dance floor. "I can assure you that you are not losing your always magical touch. Even without your constant impact on me, you clearly affect every other man here. As for Gibbs and his football, I hardly think he 'dumped' you. Perhaps he wanted to give us a chance to reconnect with each other."

"You attribute a great deal of kindness to Jethro. He is very kind to me, but I don't think that kindness would extend to you. Unless you think by allowing me time with you alone is a kindness to me, whether or not it is to you?"

"Let's not talk motives anymore. Gibbs' motives make my head hurt. We are together, in our own small world, for the first time in three years. There has not been a day that has gone by when I have not thought of you, dreamed of you, wondered where you were and what you were doing. Michael was right when he said there was no other woman for me. I have to imagine myself with you to be with any other. You are everything to me."

"I'm sorry Ari. I never wanted to bewitch you into being the only woman for you in your life. Even so, you and Gibbs are it for me. I do not want to have to choose. But you are not safe for me and mine, no matter how much I love you. I love Jethro, and choose him. He will keep me safe and never allow me to be put in harm's way."

"I would never allow you to be hurt, Faith. Your safety would always be my first priority." Ari pulled her close against him, noting that she was very skimpily dressed. He ran his hands up and down her bare back, feeling the rough skin of his hands against the silky smooth skin of her back. He remembered the specially made perfume and lotion scented with jasmine. The smell of her infused his senses. With his heightened sense of smell, he could even catch the occasional whiff of her arousal. He buried his face in her neck, inhaling her into his own body, as if he may never smell her unique scent again. His body next to hers was on fire. Faith responded to his intimate contact by pulling his loosely buttoned soft cotton work shirt, and therefore his body, into total contact with her own. She could feel the piercing hardness that indicated his desire for her, and couldn't stop herself from pressing against him, feeling him again, wanting him again. Her breathing was speeding up, and she could feel his breathing becoming more rapid. It was as if their bodily contact was causing a flammable situation, it was very intense. She thought he was so intensely hard that he must be in pain. Her own body responded to her memories of his body and his own unique scent. She rested her head on his chest, listening to his heart beat in cadence with hers.

Faith looked up at him and smiled, trying to ignore the marvelous explosion taking place between them. "I had not forgotten how well we fit together. We are like two puzzle pieces fitted together to complete each other. It is comforting really. Anyway, I know you would protect me, Ari. But your world of super spy, Svengali , assassin, and saboteur, whichever role you play today is too dangerous to keep those around you safe, no matter how much you want to."

Ari looked into her eyes, as if assessing whether he could, or should, tell her something important. Deciding that he needed to tell her, despite the danger to himself and Michael, he leaned down and whispered in her ear, suggesting that regardless of what she heard, she needed to respond with her crystalline laugh, to throw off the many eyes that were watching them now. She smiled at him and gave one of those trademark laughs, while he began his story. Ari leaned in to whisper very close to her ear. He decided to speak in Arabic in case they were over heard, it was highly unlikely they would be understood.

"سيكون إيمان, هذا عملية ال لست واحدة لمايكل وي. اختفيت يفترض نحن لا يقتل نحن إمّا سيلفّق موتنا, ثانية, أو فقط. يتلقّى أسرتك جزيرة خاصّة, أيّ أنت يتلقّى بعناية تحرس تحت يفترض اسم. يخطّط مايكل وأنا أن باستمرار اختفيت إلى أنّ جزيرة, أبدا أن يكون رأيت أو سمعت من ثانية. (Faith, this operation will be the last one for Michael and me. Assuming we aren't killed for real, we will either fake our deaths, again, or just disappear. Your family has a private island, which you have carefully guarded under an assumed name. Michael and I are planning to permanently disappear to that island, never to be seen or heard from again.")

"وكان أنت ذهبت أن يقولني هذا? أو وجد أنا صحيحة خارجا على الزيارات عرضيّة أنا أجعل إلى الجزيرة.? (And were you going to tell me this? Or would I just find out on the occasional visits I make to the island?")

Faith threw in another crystal laugh, smiling up into Ari's eyes. But when Ari looked closely, he saw panic there.

"أنا كان ذهبت أن يقول أنت في الزوج تالية أيام, لم يقتلني يفترض جبّس أولى. أنا أريد أنت أن يأتي مع نا. أنا أعرف أنت حالة حبّ جبّس, وأنت سوفت أحضرته أيضا. مايكل يخطّط أن يحضر كتي. نحن يضطرّ خطّطت الإختفاء وتوقيت لذلك يختفي نحن لا كلّ أت ون تيم. نحن أيضا نحتاج أن يحصل أوراق مناسبة, عدّة مجموعة لذلك نحن يستطيع خسرت أيّ يتعقّب أنّ أمكن كنت جعلت. نحن كلّ كنّا آمنة فور ث فيرست تيم في لونغ تيم. (I was going to tell you in the next couple of days, assuming Gibbs didn't kill me first. I want you to come with us. I know you love Gibbs, and you should bring him too. Michael is planning to bring Katie. We have to plan the disappearance and timing so we don't all disappear at one time. We also need to get appropriate papers, several sets so we can lose any tracking that might be made. We would all be safe for the first time in a long time.")

"أري, هناك شيء حقّا مهمّة أنا يضطرّ قلت أنت قبل أن يختفي أنت إلى الجزيرة. يستطيع نحن زعمت أن مرّيلي رحلت طرق الآن ويتركني ذهبت إنجاز يلعب مضيفة, ويتلاقى أنت كثير فيما بعد هذا المساء? هذا أكثر مهمّة من أنثينغ لس أنا استطاع شاركت مع أنت. أنا لا أريد أن يتمّ هذا هنا مع ذلك. هو أيضا مهمّة ل أنّ. أنا سأعرف أنت بعد يقظة ب ك يدخّن. و بتو, يدخّن أنت على الشرفة من غرفتك, نعم? (Ari, there is something really important I have to tell you before you disappear to the island. Can we pretend to merrily part ways now and let me go finish playing hostess, and join you much later tonight? This is more important than anything else I could share with you. I don't want to do this here though. It is too important for that. I will know you are still awake by your smoking. And BTW, you are smoking on the balcony of your room, yes?")

This time Ari laughed loudly at her concern over where he was smoking. "Of course, Faith. I know your rules about smoking. هذا بطاقة, سيرحل نحن بسعادة طرق, بما أنّ أنت تقترح, وأنا سأتحدّث مع أنت قريبا. كيف أنت ستهرب من جبّس أن يأتي إلى ي في غرفتي? يقبل جوابة, ضحك, وجنتي وعن تخلّىني ل ك أخرى يعبد مراوح. نحن نفصل ل غير أنّ ا فو ساعات. (And on this note, we will happily part ways, as you suggest, and I will talk with you soon. How will you escape from Gibbs to come to me in my room? Answer, laugh, kiss my cheek and abandon me for your other adoring fans. We separate for but a few hours.")

"أري, يأتي أنا أن يتحدّث مع أنت حول شيء أنّ يتعلّق أنت وي. أنا لا آتي أن يجعل حالة حبّ مع أنت. أنا لن أكذب إلى جبّس, يثق هو ويحترم ي, أنا سيتأكّد هو يفهم. سوفت أنا أحضرت بعض بوربون? تذبذبت رأسك وتمنّيتني مساء

جيّدة. (Ari, I am coming to talk with you about something that concerns you and me. I am not coming to make love with you. I will not lie to Gibbs, he trusts and respects me. I will make sure he understands. Shall I bring some bourbon? Nod your head and wish me good evening.") Faith kissed him on the cheek and wished him Shalom. He smiled at her, nodded his head in agreement, and wished her Shalom as well. He turned and left her on the dance floor walking away into the tree lined area surrounding the house, lighting a cigarette as he went. Faith watched him leave, and turned her attention to Col. Benton and his marines.

"Col., I feel remiss in not dancing with you earlier. Or are you one of those marines like our favorite Gunnery Sgt. who does not like to dance?"

"No m'am. I would be honored to have a dance with our most gracious hostess."

"Now you are being too kind." Benton walked her to the dance floor and was graced with a slow dance. "I fear my mother would be turning in her grave at my lack of hostessing duties this evening."

"Ms. Worthington, you have had an incredibly bad day, I don't need to remind you of the spectrum of challenging and terrible things that have happened in the course of 24 hours. I think you are entitled to find comfort wherever that may be."

"Col., please call me Faith. I don't want to have to have to remind you again. You have been exceptionally kind to me personally, and worked seamlessly with the entire team. Assuming we all survive, I will be sure to provide the highest recommendations to you and your team. An accommodation directly to the SecDef and Secretary of State would surely be of some benefit."

Benton's eyes practically bugged out. Faith didn't think he was aware of exactly who Faith worked for directly, and what the career implications could be for a positive outcome. The song came to an end, just in time in Faith's opinion since the Col. was losing sight of how close he was holding her to his body and how much she could tell it excited him. She thanked him for the dance and begged off to recover her mislaid Gunnery Sgt.

* * *

**Chapter 13: Jealousy and Storytelling**

* * *

I Spy

Chapter 12 J&amp;S

Jealousy and Storytelling

Faith walked barefoot, as she had been all evening, towards the still active football game. She sat quietly on the sidelines watching Jethro catch and toss the football with incredible ease. Col. Mann was sitting there enthusiastically supporting Gibbs' football game.

"Col. Mann, I can see how much you are enjoying the football game, especially Jethro's side of the game. Are you reliving your cheerleader days, where you are head cheerleader and he's the Captain of the team?"

"I was never a cheerleader, and since you weren't down here sharing his interest, I thought I would offer support."

"Well, you do have the cheerleader act down. And it is nice of you to share your enthusiasm for the game. I'm sure they appreciate it. I was busy performing my hostessing duties with the various team members. But I'm done with that and will now steal away my partner and lover to attend to the immediate team. I think you have an early morning start. I wouldn't want to keep you from the most important task we have…working on the toxin. Please keep me posted every couple of hours on progress." Faith smiled at her as she quite obviously dismissed the Col. from the party. The Col. called out to Gibbs letting him know she was leaving, and was given a wave and he quickly returned to the game.

Faith found a gentle peace in watching Jethro's flawless skill with the ball, practically catching it blind when he saw her sitting on the rock wall that made up the sidelines.

Tony and Jethro came to where she was sitting and asked her how her evening had gone.

"My evening was fine, if a little hectic. My hostessing duties have definitely dropped off in skill level. I just don't seem interested in spreading myself among all the attendees. I only want to hang out with a few."

"I saw you hanging on to Ari earlier. Is that amount of physical contact part of your required duties?" The jealousy in Gibbs' voice was obvious.

"You are the one who practically threw me into his arms to come play football. I warned you that Ari and I in the same room becomes flammable. Now you know what I meant."

Tony snorted, trying to break the tension. "You practically have to beat these guys off with a stick. How is a normal guy supposed to survive whatever you put out in the air that gives the most skilled of us

instant hard-ons? You are like a damned pheromone machine. What protection do we have? Even I'm scared, and beautiful women don't scare me."

"I don't know Tony. I just know that when I turn "it" on, which I did NOT do tonight, there is a definite response of a very positive kind. When I turn it on, whatever it is, I can get any man to give me any information that I want. Tony, can you tell Gibbs and I how you and Abby and others seem to know so much about our sex lives?"

"Abby."

"Abby? How does she know?"

"She says she can tell by the way you two walk and touch each other. And Boss is in just generally in a much better mood."

"Ah, hah. And what does this have to do with your need to protect yourself from Faith?"

"Boss, have you noticed? She is hot, smoking steaming hot." Tony checked to make sure that Faith was amused and not mad. He was trying to cheer her up, and it looked like she knew it. "She is practically a walking, talking pheromone factory. She walks in a room and every guy there gets an instant hard on. Remember the first time you met her over that dead body? She had a loaded gun at your head, and sorry Boss, but all you could think about was what your little head wanted to do to her, well, maybe its not so little but I wouldn't know. If you can't withstand her, what hope is there for us mere mortals?"

"Di'Nozzo. Shut up before I have to hurt you."

"Tony, thanks. I needed that. Tonight has not been a barrel of laughs and I can always count on you for comic relief." Faith tiredly turned to Gibbs, wrapping her arms around his waist. "Can we just go up top and talk for a while? Everyone but the core team has left. The last one to go was your die hard cheerleader fan. She seemed quite willing to take up my responsibilities where you were concerned, while I dealt with our other guests. Should I have asked her to stay for you?"

"You know that is not necessary or desired. You don't need to be so jealous of the Col. She can't hold a candle to you. She was down playing cheerleader, demanding attention. I would have liked it to have been you, but you had other jobs to do, dances to be had, and I left you alone to do your hostessing role. I should not resent the dances I knew would occur if I wasn't there. By leaving to play football I practically threw you into his arms."

Faith took his hand in hers and started to walk back up to the house. "Let's go up and hang with Abby. She always makes me feel better when she's not throwing herself at Jethro. " Before they started walking up the grounds to the tables and chairs, Faith leaned up and gave Tony a kiss, thanking him for his efforts.

Soon the tight knit core team of Abby, Tony, Ziva, McGee, Gibbs, and Faith were laughing and sharing stories from their past. Abby had started it with the idea that Faith had shared two very sexy, very secret stories with them earlier. Now they should return the favor.

Tony pointed out that since he and McGee didn't speak French, they had missed out of the two very sexy stories and wouldn't someone please have mercy on them and share the stories. He was especially interested in the story that talked about blood, orgasms, and blow jobs. He had at least deciphered that part.

"Ok, Tony. Since they are no longer secrets, I'll tell you that story. In the spy world, there is a term called honey pot. I can fulfill the usual definition of that term as can Ziva, but I also have another set of skills that could also be considered spy honey. You were commenting earlier about how most men found me to be very attractive. I think part of it comes from a skill that I am very, very good at and it is not guns or knives, which I am good at as well. This is not your usual spy skill, but being very good at it has been exceptionally useful."

Gibbs interrupted, mostly to yank Tony's chain. "She isWorld-class good at this, Di'Nozzo."

"Why thank you Jethro. That is very sweet." Faith got up from her chair and moved to sit all snuggled up in Gibbs' lap. As she joined him, wiggling her way into a comfortable position, she could feel the tension from their earlier jealous spat evaporate from his body and hers. His arms wrapped around her and one of his hands and his face buried themselves in her jasmine scented hair. At that moment, there was no one else she wanted to be this close to and he had forgiven all sins by the sheer act of her touch. "Anyway, one lazy summer my brother and I decided to use each other as practice toys. Yes, I realize it was wrong, but given what we wanted to learn to do, it was safest to practice on someone who wouldn't hurt us or scandalize one of us. Don't forget we were, we are, extremely wealthy, so our reputations were meaningful. I had been reading those books about amazingly sexy vampires that give great sex and mind blowing orgasms, and I was really horny. I started it by asking Michael to finger me to an orgasm, and I wanted to pretend to be vampires and exchange blood. We did both in the tree house in our backyard. Ultimately, with enough practice he became very good, world class good, at giving a woman an orgasm, all kinds… fingers, mouths, various entry positions. And I was the beneficiary of all those hours of practice. I became really good at receiving from an experienced lover or teaching a guy how to do the right things to accomplish his objective. There are so many men out there who simply have no technique. One shouldn't be allowed to graduate from high school without knowing how to give a proper, if not mind blowing, orgasm. I practiced giving blow jobs on my brother until I had perfected my technique. I am, as Jethro put it, world class in the art of pleasuring a man. I think that while men don't even realize it, they sense that I have some very special talents. When used to their fullest extent, I can get any information from a man. Fortunately, I rarely have had to pull out all the stops to get information. Men really will cough it up for just the visualization and hope of what they think I can provide. Hence the reason I am such a good spy. It's just another form of torture that is at my disposal. I am however, very, very careful to keep the power with me. Some men would prefer to take what they think they should be getting. Rape is to be avoided at all costs, and it is fortunate I know how to kill in so many ways. It is one of the reasons I always extricate before 2 weeks. I won't risk that

kind of harm. Anyway, Michael and I worked on our skills for several years until we felt we had perfected the art of individual and mutual orgasm. So Tony, does that clear things up? McGee, you look like you swallowed your tongue."

"Don't take this the wrong way, Faith but could I perhaps get some feedback on my technique. I would be a very participative student."

Gibbs gave him a hard head slap.

"What Boss? This would be a purely educational endeavor."

Faith jumped in before Gibbs jumped Tony. "Tony, I don't spy any more, and I don't give lessons unless it is with someone I'm involved with. Since you fall into neither category, and Jethro is himself a world class lover, and I'm not just saying that to feed his already substantial ego, I'm not seeking out new candidates. Sorry."

"He probably got all that world class talent from that long line of red heads."

"I don't really care where he learned it. It's always a pleasure to have someone already highly skilled, and who is also willing to play my games, and play them creatively."

"Games? What kind of games?"

"No more information. You'll just have to use your imagination, Tony."

"Man, that hurts. My imagination can be pretty vivid."

Faith laughed her sparkling laugh, and gave Tony another kiss on the cheek. She then turned to her lover. "So Jethro, how about you take me to bed or lose me forever?"

"Hey that is a great line from Top Gun."

"We all know you know your movies, Tony. If I'm lucky, he will use his Top Gun on me over and over again."

"Wow, Boss. You can go that long, that many times? I just am surprised that a guy like…"

"A guy like what? An old man able to keep up with his amazingly world class lover many times over again? When you got it, you got it Di'Nozzo. Don't you wish you had it?"

Faith laughed at Tony's expression, and then let out a shriek as Gibbs picked her up and threw her over his shoulder.

"Good night, everyone. See you at 0700. McGee, stop swallowing your tongue and bring donuts and coffee in the morning."

* * *

**Chapter 14: Faith finds Love X2**

* * *

I Spy

Chapter 12.b

Faith finds Love X2

Gibbs carried her upstairs where they both took a hot shower together, but saved the hanky panky for the bedroom. It had been an exhausting day, and they took their time making love, spreading their several orgasms over the hour they spent indulging themselves.

When Faith was finally resting her head on Jethro's well defined chest, she broached the subject of needing to visit Ari that night. Gibbs looked at her amazed that she would consider going to Ari's room this late at night. She began her explanation, knowing full well that what she was about to tell him could cost her everything. "Remember how I told you I would never keep secrets from you? I'm about to tell you a secret that only myself and Katie know. By rights I should tell Ari first, but I need you to understand why I need to do this now. Once you know this secret, you may decide you don't want to be with me anymore."

Gibbs propped himself up on the copious amount of pillows and with a nod of his head, indicated she should continue.

"Ari told me tonight that he and Michael plan to disappear or fake their own deaths at the end of this op. They plan to retire, or disappear, to the little private island that belongs to our family, but is held under deep cover to protect it and who lives there."

"And who lives there that you would take such precautions?"

"Three years ago, when I left Ari suddenly, it was because I was pregnant with his child. He has no idea. I knew if I told him, or anyone, our child would be in great danger. Probably not from her father, but from all the people that managed her father and ran the ops he was involved with. I did not want to ever have her involved in Moussad, Hammas, or anything else that her father was. As you can imagine, the danger was too great."

"What is her name, Faith?"

"Aribella. Beautiful Ari. Here is a picture of her taken during my last trip."

"She is only three and she is already stunning. She has your hair curls and light skin coloring, and your emerald green eyes. Her hair color and facial structure is Ari's."

"Yes, I think she is beautiful as well. She is already starting to read! So do you understand why I need to go to Ari tonight and tell him of his beautiful daughter. If they plan to go to the island, he must know."

"Of course you have to tell him. I have to ask though. You are going just to talk? You would not let him make love to you, would you?"

"Jethro, in your heart of hearts, you have to trust me. We may talk through the night, may even hold each other because I imagine this will be very intense for him. But we will not make love. Do you trust me?"

"I trust you. I willingly allow you to go. He will forever be a part of our lives now, and we need to make our peace together. Go. Take your whiskey. Come back to me before the morning. I love you Faith."

"I love you too, Jethro. I will not betray your trust. I promise. I need to take a shower and be on my way."

"Why a shower? You don't want him to smell me on you?"

"Would you want to smell him on me?"

ISPY ISPY ISPY ISPY ISPY ISPY ISPY ISPY ISPY ISPY ISPY ISPY ISPY ISPY ISPY

Five minutes later, Faith was dressed in her ancient Marine t-shirt and flannel pants. She carried with her the offering of Scotch whiskey with two glasses and several pictures she had hidden. She went unarmed, but had the night time secret service detail stationed outside Ari's door. She knocked softly on his door, knowing that he was still awake. He quickly opened the door, took in the secret service detail accompanying her, and allowed Faith to access his room. Not knowing what she would put so much emphasis on, he was very edgy with the lack of information.

Faith smiled at him, pouring two glasses of Belevenie Whiskey. She wanted to ease into the conversation, so they drank a bit first, propped up on the bed pillows.

Ari's anxiety was getting the best of him and it showed as he jumped right in about how Faith loudly, and very indiscreetly, fucked Gibbs before the party where everyone could hear. Then he attacked her mode of dress, or lack there of that evening. "If you were with me, I would never allow you to dress like that and call attention to your body and virtual nakedness. There was way to much lust with the men at the party, and it made me uncomfortable having those men watching and wanting you. How does Gibbs stand for it?"

"Ari, you don't need to be crude about what you happened upon. It is our house, and only you would have the balls to stop and feel the need to insert yourself into what should have been a private moment. As for my dress, Gibbs asked me to dress in that way, probably to torture you, certainly to torture me. He does this to make sure that every man there knew that I belonged to him, and while they may dance with me, that is as far as it goes. He was especially making the point with you. Just so you understand, I have turned over control in the bedroom to him. That means that when he chooses to, which is not often, he tells me what to wear in the bedroom, he uses toys to increase my arousal or watches me use the toys on myself, he controls when and if I touch myself, he determines positions and determines punishment for my misdeeds during the day or night. Telling me to wear that dress without underwear was meant to stir things up. He wants other men jealous, so he gets to play major alpha male. It turns

him on to see other men lusting after me, knowing he gets to go back and make love to me. It is exactly what happened tonight. Looking at your face, you seem appalled at our little game. But it is just a game, and it can be stopped anytime. I enjoy the thought of giving control over to him in this small way. You saw the action today. If anything, I am more in charge than he is, at least as far as this situation goes. Usually, he is absolutely in charge, but he and I have not worked together before. I just happened to be the one who got tasked with this massive undertaking. I consider us to be sharing the responsibility. I can tell what I have told you about Gibbs' and my life in the bedroom excites you to what looks like a very painful hardness. Has it been like that since you left me on the dance floor?"

"Yes, it has. But I never did anything about it this evening. It has been so long since I have been this aroused. Unless you plan to do something about it, I will just leave it be."

Faith licked her lips, and against her better judgment, she reached out and lightly brushed her hand against his hardness. She missed the feel of him. "I'm sorry Ari. I did not come here to make love with you. I shouldn't have touched you. I just crave your touch. But, I have something else of great importance to tell you. Did you ever wonder why I left you so suddenly and never tried to contact you?"

"Of course, I played our final days in my mind a hundred times trying to understand why you left."

"Ari, I was pregnant with your child. Your world was too dangerous, and having your child made things increasingly dangerous for all of us. I did not want her raised in your world of religious craziness and danger, or my world of political intrigue. Ari, you have a daughter. Her name is Aribella, beautiful Ari. And she lives on that family island, buried under a number of alias' and very heavy guard. I go see her every 4-6 weeks. If you are truly planning on retiring to the island, then I had to make sure you knew. If you are not going there for good, you must never go there. Your life's danger follows you."

"Faith, my God. Do you have any pictures?"

Faith gave him several pictures from when Aribella was first born to the most recent. "She looks like you, Faith. Long curly hair, emerald green eyes, pale skin."

"Yes, but Ari look at her face, and while her eyes are green, they are your eyes."

"Does Michael know? Who else knows of her?"

Faith looked into Ari's chocolate colored bedroom eyes. "Until tonight Katie was the only one who knew. Michael still does not know. I told Gibbs tonight. Your world of being a spy or a Svengali is no longer mine. And while you are my soul mate, you are not my lover. I belong to another. He is not my soul mate, not like we are. But I love him completely, and we will be married and I will have his children. I may already be pregnant with his child. That is why we too were planning to disappear to that island. While Judaism and Catholicism don't believe in reincarnation, perhaps we are coming back to be together as we have been destined to be. I had held out a gentle hope that some day our destinies will cross permanently. I think this is about to happen."

"I want us to be together. I would even share you. Does he know how much I love you?"

"Yes, about as much as he loves me. He even offered to free me to be with you because he loved me so much, and my happiness surpasses all other things for him. Do you know how much he hates you? It will be a big hurdle to overcome. Tomorrow, during your interrogation, do not antagonize him. He will see to it that we are never able to see each other again. I don't want that. But if you lie to him, even the smallest bit, he will know it. I know you are very smooth and maybe almost impossible to detect a lie from. But he is truly a human lie detector, and he will know. Even in your French stories today, and not knowing the situation, he would be able to detect a lie from you or Michael. I want so much for you to be siding with me, for your heart to belong to me enough that you would do no harm to me, those I love, or my country. I cannot tell what is true anymore, my emotions are too wrapped up in you. And we have a child together. Please do not let me down."

"I will give Gibbs all the answers he asks for. And we will all be together again, our daughter, you, me, Gibbs and your child with him. Now, you should rest for a few minutes while I look at the pictures some more, memorizing your face and hers. Close your eyes, Faith my love. Magnificat, the Blessed Mother to my child." Faith took a few moments to rest her head on his beloved chest, and with her tortuous secret off her chest, fell into a deep sleep clinging to his shirt and her legs wrapped around his. She was finally at peace.

An hour or so later, Ari awoke with a start realizing he had fallen asleep as well. He disentangled himself from her, although she continued to cling to his shirt with her tiny, strong hands wadding his shirt up, unwilling to be released. He kissed her gently on the lips and carried her sleeping form from his room to the entrance to her room. Wisely, he asked the secret service guard to knock on the door and open it. Ari whispered to the guard that he didn't want Gibbs to mistakenly shoot either Faith or him while he was trying to return her to her room. The guard laughed softly, and thought he may still be lucky if he didn't get shot returning her this late, or rather, this early in the morning.

After being invited in, Ari carried Faith to her bed while Gibbs lowered the covers so that Ari could tuck her in. Gibbs looked at her completely relaxed face, and then at Ari who was still looking in wonder at Faith.

"I guess she told you. Congratulations are in order I believe."

"Thank you Gibbs. I appreciate that. It might be the only best wishes I'll get since we must keep this a top secret situation. I know we have never got along, but I, at least, have always respected you. And now we have a different sort of shared affection. We both intensely love the same woman."

"Love her with overwhelming passion I would say. I think this is a once in a lifetime love, and she is lucky enough to have that love from two equally strong, and equally passionate men."

"And she will have given us each a child. Gibbs, you must take care of her and my daughter if something were to happen to me and I do not survive to get to the island. Would you do that for me? Your enemy?"

"She loves you too much for you to remain my enemy. I love her too much to hurt her with my continued hatred. Our children will grow up together, and we will grow old together, with Faith. You will not die, not for real, and we will all live on this island of Faith's and Michael's. I have not spoken with her about this, but given that we both love her, and she loves us equally, would you be able to share her with me?"

A sleepy voice softly spoke up. "I don't know about you Ari, but that sounds like heaven to me."

"If I would go to heaven and hell for you, then I suppose I could meet somewhere in the middle and share you as well. But only with Gibbs. He is the only man, other than myself, worthy of you."

Faith snuggled against Gibbs chest and held Ari's hand. He took another long look at his precious Faith, made even more precious because she had given him a daughter. Ari started to rise from the bed, and Gibbs stopped him. "Where are you going?"

"Back to my room."

"Ari, did we not just agree that we are not just a twosome, but a threesome? It is what Faith wants, I can live with it too. You belong here with us. Slide under the covers and stay with us."

"You really mean this don't you? You want me to be here with the two of you. You already have her heart and her body. Why would you be willing to share?"

"I never thought I would see the day, but yes, I want you to stay with Faith and I. It is what will make her the most happy, and whatever makes her happy, makes me happy. We will have to work some things out of course, but because we both love her like we do, I think we can make our little triumvirate work. Triumvirate means the shared power and responsibility between the three of us. I choose the word intentionally…shared power and responsibility. Important words for an unusual situation."

"Ari?" a sleepy voice spoke up once again, clutching him to her even closer. "Gibbs is still going to interrogate you in the morning. Don't fail the test or all tastes of heaven are gone to hell. No second chances with me or your daughter, or to build trust with Gibbs, me, and the team. If I cannot trust you absolutely, I will take your daughter and we will utterly disappear from this world. You will never find us. Do you understand?"

She heard a soft deep chuckle. "Bring it on baby. I won't let you down, and I won't give Gibbs a reason to not trust me. I think that if he trusts me, you will trust me, and perhaps vice versa. I am on the cusp of having everything I ever wanted, you, my daughter, a quiet uneventful life, a life separate from intrigue, political and religious wars, and maybe even find another friend I can trust like I trust Michael. Perhaps Gibbs wants that as well. I am a wise man as is he, so tomorrow's interrogation should go well. 'Examinations are formidable even to the best prepared, for the greatest fool may ask more than the wisest man can answer.'"

Gibbs spoke up with his tired and gravely voice. "Charles Colton, clergyman and writer, 1820. We'll see you at 0700. That is just a few hours away and we all need some sleep, especially Faith."

Ari gave a gentle smile to both of them, appreciating their welcome into their bed and their lives. He climbed under the covers, where Faith pulled him up close to her, snuggling tightly between the two great loves of her life. She instantly fell asleep to the rhythm of their breathing, and they were close behind her.

* * *

**Chapter 15: Faith Gets Busy**

* * *

A/N: I hope people are still reading. I haven't gotten any feedback for a while. Sorry for the mess up on the posting of the previous chapters. There are aspect of Word 07 I like, and others I hate. I hope you went back and read the fresh posting since it is much better, and not as long. In this episode, Jenny unfortunately goes by the wayside. She's not dead, I just find her really annoying in her flirtations with Gibbs. Hence, she has to go, and at the end of season she has. No big loss there. And Tony gets reamed pretty strongly for all those stupid things he does that Gibbs never calls him on. Don't get me wrong, I like Tony. He just needs to grow up, a lot. I hope you enjoy the story. I'm trying to balance sex, innuendo and a real live plot, harder than I thought. If you recognize the character, they belong to CBS. The rest, including the plot is mine. CQ

I Spy

Chapter 15

Faith Gets Busy

Faith's sound sleep was disturbed by someone shaking her awake. She opened her eyes and saw Bobby, the morning secret service detail, trying to gently wake her. She shoved him off the bed and rolled under the pillows, the scent of Ari covering the pillow she had buried her head under. She realized she had fallen asleep with two men in her bed, and woken up with none. Hopefully, that wasn't some sort of sign. It certainly wasn't starting her day or her mood off well.

"Bobby, I need coffee. Now. And what time is it? "

"It is 0615. Katie is packing you some food to take with us and coffee. She says to, and I quote, get your ass in the shower, or you'll never make the interrogations, unquote."

"Oh, shit. I can't be late. Get your guys up and running. We leave in 20 minutes."

"Yes, m'am. We'll be ready."

"Great, now get out of my room so I can get ready. And find out where my coffee is."

Twenty-five minutes later Faith was walking casually out of the elevator at NCIS, two coffees in hand. Her hair was still wet, but she usually air dried it anyway. In lieu of make up, she just settled on copious amounts of mascara and light lipstick, and hoped that her traditional low slung jeans and unusual red baby doll top would cover for her lack of a more finished look. The lacey baby doll top was one of her favorites since it had ¾ sleeves, with lace on the cuffs, and it buttoned from the top of her bra to the lower part of her bra and was left open the rest of the way. It left a lot of skin exposed. If you knew they were there, you could even see most of her tattoos. She felt very sexy and yet very feminine at the same time.

She walked into the main operation area where different events were being staged. Col. Benton was arranging transportation of the toxin. Faith nodded at him, wishing them God Speed, and letting him

know she would be watching and listening from MTAC. Abby had started the computer set up to link to the terrorists' computers. Ziva was set to start translating.

Faith saw Jenny in the large room for the first time since this assignment had started. She was talking to or rather demanding an update from Gibbs on everything, before he started the interrogations. Perfect, Faith needed something or someone to beat up or otherwise abuse this early in the morning.

Faith approached Jenny and Gibbs, and Faith could tell she was harassing him for much more a reason than information on what was going on. She still wanted him and was determined to torture him since she couldn't have him. "Good morning Jethro." Faith gave him a very intimate kiss, deep-throating him as she wrapped herself around him, in the process turning her back to Jenny, and then just as quickly released him handing him a coffee. "Missed you this morning, baby. I wish you had woken me before you left.

"After that greeting I am sorry that I didn't wake you as well. I definitely missed you too. But you needed your sleep and didn't need to be here before 0700. Thanks for the coffee. It's perfect."

"You are welcome for the coffee. And if I had been woken up, I'm sure it would have improved my mood and stamina, Jethro. Shouldn't you be getting ready for your interrogations? I'll have Abby bring you some more coffee in a bit. You go take care of business. I'll miss most of Michael's interrogation, since I will be in MTAC watching the transport."

"You look amazing this morning Faith. I think I might even see those tattoos you have." Gibbs touched her stomach lightly, gave her a smile, a deep kiss and a nod, before walking off without a backwards glance. He was perfectly happy to turn over a jealous and unreasonable Jenny to Faith's deft hands.

Jenny's voice was venomous. "He works for me, not you. You cannot override my orders. And you do not have access to MTAC."

"That is where you are mistaken Jenny. I am in charge of this special op. Sorry you didn't seem to get the memo, but I can't help that. I report to the SecDef and the Secretary of State. I have been given these people to run this operation. I can get any others that I might require, from any branch of the military. During the course of the operation, they do not report to you, or anyone else except me. This project is on a strictly need to know, and you don't need to know. Would you feel better about this if we called up the SecDef? I'm sure he is at work since I've already spoken with him this morning."

Faith's earwig had Col. Benton relaying that they were leaving in 5 minutes and had tactical coverage on all sides through to the secure facilities at CID. She thanked him and asked to be kept up to date constantly. She would be watching and listening from MTAC.

"And just who gave you access to MTAC?"

"The SecDef, of course. MTAC is all set and waiting for me. You are going to let me in, and get the eye scan set to allow me access."

"I don't take orders from you, Faith. We have always worked together. And now I'm in charge of NCIS. If anything, you work for me. "

"I'm sorry Jenny. This time I'm in charge, I don't have time to walk on eggshells with your ego and your jealousy regarding Gibbs. You have no need to know. If we have to, call the SecNav or SecDef. They will see you as disagreeable and an obstruction to this operation. This is a career ending moment Jenny. What do you want to do? You have one minute to decide, and I have them on speed dial if you make the wrong call."

"It's your career that is going to end here, Faith. Dial the SecNav."

Faith was sure she had chosen the SecNav because Jenny thought her relationship with him was strongest. She dialed the personal number for the SecNav. He answered her call personally.

"Mr. Secretary, I'm sorry to bother you."

"No bother Faith. You have the most important op going right now. I am at your disposal. How can I help?"

"I've been granted access to MTAC, and need it within the next two minutes to track the transportation of the product. The Director of NCIS is refusing me access and is interfering with the running of my operation."

"Besides blocking your access to MTAC, what else has Director Shepherd done?"

"She has questioned the members of my team, demanding information, holding them hostage late into the night to try to get information. In some cases, it is personal and jealousy driven. Sir, I have about 30 seconds before the trucks leave. I'd like to watch the security."

"Please put Director Shepherd on the line."

"Sir, I'd like to explain…"

The Secretary interrupted her. "I don't need an explanation Director. You are relieved of all your duties immediately. I will send a temporary replacement today. In the meantime, give Faith full and complete access to all MTAC and NCIS records immediately. If Faith has to call me, or any of the Secretaries again because of your obstruction, I will have you arrested for supporting terrorism and treason. Put Faith back on."

"Faith here Mr. Secretary. "

"I have relieved Shepherd from her duties. MP's will be there in a few minutes to remove her from the premises. She has been ordered to provide you all access to NCIS files and resources, including MTAC. Please call me again if there is anything else I can assist you with."

"Thank you Mr. Secretary."

"Of course, we are all relying on you and your team. You, personally, are one of our most important assets. We need to keep you. We are all praying for you. Goodbye."

"I'm sorry Jenny. I gave you an out so this would not occur. You should have trusted me. Please take me to MTAC immediately. I have to watch the transport route."

Within a few minutes, Faith was sitting in the dark room of MTAC watching the transportation of the toxin. Col. Benton had done an excellent job of security from what she could tell. She was listening to the ongoing dialogue between the Col. and some of his security. There was a lot of traffic discussing an unidentified black hummer that seemed to be following the convoy. There were some very tense moments as the hummer was surrounded, shots were fired, and the armed suspects taken into custody. They were overwhelmed by force, and no one was injured. Benton, ever vigilant, never stopped the convoy's progress, and continued to press for security detail to watch for other security breaches. Faith watched them drive into CID headquarters, and move the product into the actual laboratory. She sighed with relief knowing the toxin they had was safe and under the best security available. She went on-line with the security forces and instructed them to bring the suspects to NCIS headquarters for interrogation. She thanked them all and signed off, asking the MTAC wizards to keep the apprehension of the hummer and the individuals in question queued up for Agent Gibbs. He would be questioning them later that day.

Faith headed downstairs to the interview room, anxious to see the famous Gibbs' interrogation. She wasn't sure who to expect in the room with him, but was anxious to see what would evolve.

She entered the darkened room and found Tony and McGee in there watching the interrogation of her brother, Michael.

"How's it going?"

"Nothing surprising. Michael seems pretty clean. I haven't seen anything from Gibbs that would tell me any different."

"How much longer will it be? Has anyone run financials, other records on him and Ari?"

"We've been pretty busy Faith. No one has run the financials on either of them. It won't be much more on this interrogation I think. And then it will be Ari's turn. That one should be pretty challenging."

Gibbs had quietly entered the observation, unheard by the two engaged in discussion.

"Why do you say that?" Faith asked curiously.

"Ari is really smooth and lies easily and Gibbs is really smooth and can sense a lie better than a lie detector. Oh, yeah, and they have a history of trying to kill each other. And of course they are both madly, passionately in love with you. Yeah, this won't be an interrogation I would ever want to miss."

"You make it sound like two gladiators fighting to the death."

"That's very good Faith. But which will win, the Russell Crowe character, standing for good, or the Joaquim Phoenix emperor representing pure evil?"

Faith frowned at him, knocking his smirk off Tony's face. "I hate to disappoint you Tony, but you'll miss the coliseum. No thumbs up or thumbs down. I don't think you or McGee can be too busy if you are just watching someone else do their job. Since you obviously have the time, and neglected your due diligence in Police 101, I want you both running financials and other pertinent data on Ari and Michael. Look for aliases. I want details in an hour, my eyes only. Anyone else sees or hears about it, you'll be fired. No rumors, no hints, no eye rolls, no one even knows what you are doing. Understand? We are playing for the Royal Flush here at the highest roller table. Anything less than the top hand makes us the losers. The losers are not only just all of our team, but the various Secretaries, congressmen and other assorted important people that will be at the Ball. Losing the game means we all die. I don't know about you, but I don't want to die. Find out who these captives being brought in in a few minutes are and run their financials and other pertinent information. There was an attempt on the toxin transport. How? Why? I want supported theories for an attempted hijack. Are they connected to the existing cell? Gibbs is going to interrogate them later today. I want him to have something to work with. FIND IT. We may have a leak, McGee, check everyone who knew about the transfer, phones, computers, etc. Look for stuff out of the norm. And while I'm it, did you and Abby complete the download information between Michael and Ari's bugs and NCIS?"

"Um, we are not quite done yet."

"You mean SHE is not quite done. GET it DONE. I saw her up there working on it while you two were down here playing footsies. What do you people think we are doing here? I know Gibbs doesn't run this loose of a ship. This is a bigger deal than who killed the latest petty officer. This behavior may cut it under your usual investigations, but in the next four days you work for me and my standards are very high. We have to find and eliminate the cell or cells involved, find and eliminate a possible leak within our team, find and eliminate whoever tried to hijack the transport this morning, and while we are at it we need to look for other devices that could bring the party to its knees. FOUR days guys. Quit fucking around."

Gibbs finally spoke up, surprising Tony. Faith had known he'd been there for a while. "I take it the hijackers were not successful. Was anyone hurt?"

"Not yet. As for the people here, it is still early in the day for Tony and McGee. I don't head slap Tony and McGee, nor do I punish by spanking like Gibbs has been known to do. My mood is starting to turn sour quickly so I could start hurting you or anyone else who is not working hard and fast and on the right stuff. I could make it hurt so good, but that ship has sailed. If you don't get to work, real work, I will hurt you so bad. If I don't have the time I will just have Ziva cover for me. I know you are already aware of her torture techniques. Of course, in this case it would not be torture of course, but more of a course correction."

"We are on it, m'am. Course correction of any kind will not be required, unless you think some of your special talent might be persuasive."

Gibbs spoke up, using his most commanding voice, pounding Tony on the head several times, "Di'Nozzo, you gotta learn to shut your trap. You must have a death wish, Tony. Can't you tell she is REALLY pissed at you? And she can kill you in more ways than you can imagine and no one would ever find the body. Shut up. Start acting like a Senior Agent. Do your job. Get her what she needs when she says she needs it. Period."

"And Tony, don't call me m'am, call me Faith. I should slap your face, but I'm all out of slaps, at this point they are sort of a wimpy punishment anyway. So Tony and McGee, I believe you have a great deal of work assigned to you that does not include drinking coffee in the observation room, among other things. Next time I see you, you better be working, not flirting, not complaining to your co-workers about me, not reading Hustler behind some file, and not on the phone with anyone that isn't directly regarding this case. Talk to your girlfriend at the hospital and you are fired. Don't even answer her calls Di'Nozzo. Don't think I won't know. That assignment has been terminated, effective immediately. We are running out of time, and will be working here around the clock. Pull one of your infamous disappearing acts, and I will get medieval on your ass before I fire you. Everyone is to let me know before they leave the building. Get on board or I will replace you permanently. If you think that fun and games in our off -time means that I am not to be taken seriously and that I don't take this assignment seriously you should reconsider that line of thinking Agent. Do I need to write any of this down for you before you leave?"

"Thinking definitely reconsidered, Faith. And no, we know what we need to do, Faith."

Tony and McGee left, tails between their legs. "They are no doubt off to complain to their compatriots upstairs that I'm PMSing or something stupid and chauvinistic. Funny that I can't be PMSing if I'm pregnant."

Gibbs' eyebrows shot up in surprise. "Are you sure Faith?"

"Took at test this morning. No doubt. Even threw up a few times this morning for good measure."

He grabbed her in his arms practically dancing around the room. "This is wonderful, Faith. You are going to have my baby. Wow! But you've been losing weight, and your skin has become so porcelain it is practically see through. This cannot be good."

"It will be fine. Four more days and I'll lounge in bed and you can bring me bon bons while I watch reruns of NCIS and Numb3rs. The baby takes what it needs from my body, and my body loses temporarily, at least for the next few days. Jethro, really, I'll try to eat better and lay off the caffeine, but pretty much everything makes me sick. Except you, of course." Faith gave him one of her most charming smiles and then went back to business, standing wrapped in Gibbs arms.

"I can't believe police work 101 hasn't been accomplished and they are sitting in here drinking coffee watching you interrogate."

"Part of the reason they watch is for safety, partly it is for them to learn how to interrogate. "

"We are not running a probie training mission here so the presence of senior agents is not required. They were down here to be entertained. Gladiators, indeed, and then wondering which one is for good and which one is for evil. Did I not just go through that good/evil thing yesterday? The boy has the brain like a sieve. If you need security we'll get some marines down here. You already have Fornell. The marines seem more than capable to do any job assigned them. I'll be here to listen and can provide security if necessary as will my secret service detail right out the door. Do you have excuses for the other failures in basic police work by your so called ace team? I would have thought you would have trained them better."

"No excuses, m'am. But I assure you they will inundate you with information, on the time schedule you have laid out."

"Bottom line Jethro."

"You are really hot when you go all controlling on them. It makes my head slaps and occasional spankings seem tame. But you should know they are the best there is. Give them a direction, they will follow it until there is no further to go. Tim is the best at the computer geek stuff, tell him what you want and let him go. You already know how good Ziva and Abby are."

"My concern is that they haven't been able to anticipate what the basics are. Tony is your senior agent and seems to screw around more than work. And Tim, genius that he is, was not working with Abby on our single most important resource. He was farting around down here. Something is broken if they can't self-manage at their level."

"Maybe you need to explain to them just why this project is important and the time frame we are working on. If they knew the why and when, they can figure out the how and what. I am 100 percent behind you Faith. They will see us solidly together. If we disagree, we do it in the elevator or at home. Ok?"

Faith laughed and wrapped herself around him. "Agreed. So I am hot, huh?" She pressed herself against him and knew just how hot he thought she was. "Think we can lock the door and steam up the windows?"

"I interrogate Ari in just a few minutes. Even a quickie would be too much to deal with going against Ari. I don't need the distraction, plus, he would know which would just make things hard for both of us."

"Nothing hard between the two of you without me there to participate." Faith smiled at him impishly. Then she got serious again, "Jethro, you need to know that Jenny was fired this morning. They escorted her out under MP guard, with the Secretary of the Navy threatening her with charges of terrorism and treason. It was awful. She blocked my access to MTAC, and insisted that we call the SecNav even though I told her this was a career ending move. He fired her on the spot. I feel terrible."

"Jenny had been losing control a long time. She was obsessing on cases well beyond the scope of NCIS for personal reasons. She was using NCIS and MTAC as her personal vendetta machine. I had been warning her for a long time that this was the end result. This is not your fault. I think I need to go visit

with our newest member of our triad." He watched as Fornell brought a cleaned up and very casually dapper looking Ari into the room. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her. "I hope this goes well for all our sakes."

* * *

**Chapter 16: Shared Love, Forever**

* * *

I Spy

Chapter 16

Shared Love, Forever

Faith stood and watched the two men she loved sit across from each other. It was a very antagonistic stance for them to take right off the bat. She had dismissed, with Gibbs' permission, the techno-geeks that ran the equipment in the observation room. No one wanted this interrogation taped, except maybe Tony, the gladiators seeing it to the death.

While she waited in a locked room waiting for things to get started, she made a quick phone call from one of her many prepaid untraceable non-gps tagged phones.

"Hey Bernie. It's Magnificat. I'm sending two men to you today hopefully. They'll need the full package 3 times over. You have about 4 days. The usual price? Put it on my account. You'll be paid in full when the job is complete. Any questions?"

"Nope, just give them the address, phone if they are going to use this sort of number. I'll be waiting."

"Thanks Bernie."

The entire conversation had lasted less than 30 seconds, and Bernie had sophisticated call blocking and anti tracing software at his end as well. She was protected, as were Ari and Michael. He was the best of the best forgers in town and would take care of the she just had to get the addresses to them and their plan, whatever it was could commence. On her regular phone she called her lawyer and asked that two million dollars in small used bills be placed equally between two briefcases and delivered to Katie at the townhouse by 4 pm. She then hung up without further conversation.

She heard the name Caitlyn Todd and immediately started paying attention. Gibbs didn't seem like he was pulling any punches.

"Why did you kill Caitlyn Todd? You were a little bit in love with her. How could you?"

"Yes, I had feelings for Caitlyn, and because of that I never would have killed her. I was on that roof to kill you, but the bullet Caitlyn took was from another cell member. They had told me they would kill Caitlyn if I didn't kill you. I wasn't quick enough, reluctant actually, to kill you. They killed her before I had the chance to kill you. I knew Faith by then, and she brought me into the light. She helped me to understand when things were done for the right reasons, and when things were not. We used to discuss religion and politics while we would be lying together. She showed me how to tell the difference between what was done in the name of a true religion or true belief, and what was an action due to twisted beliefs and morals. There was a bigger picture I was too intelligent not to see. I have never met anyone who could discuss politics, all religions, and an awful lot of philosophy. They really were the most stimulating conversations I ever had. "

"Why were you reluctant to kill me? You hated me."

"I found you arrogant and overbearing, just like you still are. But I have a considerable amount of respect for you as well. I know your dossier inside and out, your wife and daughter taken out by snipers, your miserable private life, cursed with three ex-wives, spending your spare time building boats and then burning them. Until Faith blessed your life, everything changed after that. But in your work, you are always about the murdered and their families. I have seen you relate to the coldest of grieving wives, the most intimidating of officers, and still you never lose sight of finding the truth. Truth for the living and truth for the dead. Truth in my old world is a lost concept. Completely twisted and charred in decades of misunderstanding, lack of trust, religious misunderstanding and debacles, and unwillingness to cooperate and empathize. This sort of truth is not worth dying over. It's not worth killing over."

"Truth in my new life represents that if you speak the truth, you have nothing to fear, it is an obvious fact, it is honesty and sincerity, it is loyalty. 'No pleasure is comparable to the standing upon the vantage-ground of truth...and to see the errors, and wanderings, and mists, and tempests, in the vale below.' Francis Bacon. I stand at the vantage point of truth Gibbs, Faith has shown me that in countless ways, and I see all the wrongs I have committed in the name of two religions, not even my own, that do not exist, at least not as they were meant to. The man who was sent to kill you, and in exchange got Caitlyn killed no longer exists. He would gladly change places with Caitlyn if he could. Gibbs, I tell the truth. Believe me or not, for great is truth and it shall prevail. In the end, your famous gut will decide whether you believe me or not. There really isn't anything left to say. I love Faith, I love my daughter I may never get to see, and I entrust upon you the care and love of my child, that if I don't get out of here, or make it to the island, that you will raise her as your own with your own child. She could not be raised by a more honorable man."

Gibbs sat there for a few minutes, staring at Ari. The silence was thick, and to Ari's credit he also remained absolutely still, having said his piece, he had nothing left to say. Gibbs stood up suddenly, leaving the Ari in the room alone. "I'll be back in a moment."

He knocked on the locked observation door and Faith opened it.

"Well?"

"Did that really happen? You and him in bed discussing politics and religion?"

"Yes, it did. I taught him that quote, trying to get him to leave the life of hell he had been unknowingly and certainly unwittingly brought into. His father is the true Svengali, a bastard if there ever was one. I thought if we could discuss politics, true religion as opposed to the bastardized versions, and philosophy then I could help him change the course of his doomed life. If he could visualize the good and right side of things, instead of just taking orders that made no sense, he would truly be a better man, a more truthful man, a more honorable man. Do you believe him now? What is your gut telling you?"

"My gut tells me he is a different man than we knew before, a better man, one who wants to be with you and your daughter. He will be an asset to our team, and he is trustworthy. But I want you to stay

close to him and make sure we are not wrong. I don't want him trying to kill me in the middle of the night while we are all piled together in our little threesome."

Gibbs and Faith went back in to share the news with Ari, who was greatly relieved. His fear was not of death or other horrors like Guantanamo, but of losing the woman he loved and the daughter he had never seen.

Faith gave Ari and big hug and kiss, sliding a small business sized card into his shirt pocket. She then quickly turned to Gibbs and gave him a hug and kiss, thanking him for being open minded and seeing Ari as he was now, not as he was then. Gibbs got a little embarrassed and suggested they go for lunch someplace close by, unless Faith had other plans.

"Lunch sounds perfect, but I already arranged for lunch to be brought in for everyone. The only ones going out this afternoon and evening are Ziva, Michael, and Tony for observation duties on the cell we know of, and the three of us taking the evening shift tonight. We need to establish a short term schedule, and if they adhere to it tomorrow, we take them all out tomorrow night."

"You are not taking anyone out. We will do it and you can direct from MTAC, or even the van."

"Gibbs, don't start with this. I know I am pregnant. I will wear body armor. I won't lead the charge, but I will be there. Ari, I don't want to hear from you either, unless of course it is to side with me." Faith smiled at both men but for perhaps the first time ever, her smile didn't break down their opposition to her participation. "The trick is that we have to get all 8 of the cell members. Ari, didn't you say there were 8? And we don't want to kill the leader or leaders. Ari and Michael have to point them out and Tony takes the pictures. We don't have time, so it goes down tomorrow."

"Clandestine operations are fine, Faith. We'll all hang out in the car and write down time in and time out. Once the last one is in, we'll go in and take them out. But I will truss you up in MTAC if you do not agree to stay out of this assault."

The two of them stared at each other, neither willing to move from their positions, until finally Ari spoke up. "Faith, this is one night, maybe two for this whole operation left. Is it worth the life of your child, and you, to participate in this strike. You have more than enough strong agents that will do this for you, especially once they know why you are not going. You have already taken two bullets during this "little-probably-nothing-op". You've done your share. Eat food you bring in for everyone else, sleep on the floor with everyone else, but do not go in with guns blazing with everyone else. Please?"

Faith looked at Gibbs, who was looking much more relaxed after Ari's speech, and back to Ari whose chocolate bedroom eyes were filled with tears in his desperation to protect her. "Ok, a few people will wear cameras and I'll stay back at MTAC. Either of you die, or get wounded, I will kill you myself, again."

"Did you just hear that Ari? Sounds to me like she was planning to go in to protect us. Have you been in assaults without Faith before? I mean, I know she has special powers, but I think we will be able to handle this without her, this time."

"Last time I checked I was a really good shot, and she is a really good shot too. Maybe even better than the both of us. Even so, I think we can, with overwhelming force, go in and take them out. All while she watches from the safety of MTAC. And while we are talking about safety, you are looking entirely too tired and your skin is practically translucent. You've lost weight. You need to sleep in MTAC tonight, and unless there is cause you don't get up at 0700. And EAT. The baby needs it and so do you."

"Will the two of you join me up there? No hanky panky, just sleep on either side of me. I want to smell you and have that sense of a protective cocoon."

"We'll sleep up there with you, rumors be damned."

"That is pretty much what I was thinking. But what about Col. Mann, do you want me to invite her to join us? I'm sure she would be happy to."

"I'm not talking about this anymore, Faith. Knock off the jealousy, and the constant reminder of that relationship. It's over, you know it, let it be over and us more forward. Do you understand? I don't rub your face in past relationships, or even more painfully, question your and Ari's relationship. I haven't asked what that card was you passed to him after the interrogation. I trust you that it is for a good purpose, and that I don't need to know. Is that true?"

"I'll tell you what the card was for if you want. However, I was trying to give you plausible deniability. If you want to know, I will tell you. I told you no secrets, I meant it. Want to know?"

"Baby, that is the whole point. I don't need to know what was on the card. You two having some sort of illicit affair outside of our arrangement, I trust that you aren't, neither of you is stupid. You offering congratulations for passing the test, great. You passing information to help with their great escape. I don't want to know. If the three of us are going to be together, forever, sharing each other and raising each others' kids, then we need to trust each other. Can we do that?"

Both Ari and Faith gave a firm "Yes." And Ari added that this was his dream come true and he was not going to blow it over trust issues. All three of them looked at each other and then and moved towards the center encircling all three of them. Ari spoke up and said "Shared responsibility and shared power." And Gibbs looked at Faith and back at Ari and added "And shared love, forever."

* * *

**Chapter 17: Faith Getw Busy II**

* * *

I Spy

Chapter 17

Faith Gets Busy II

Faith joined the loud environment at the main floor where food boxes and people laid on the floor. She had ordered countless pizzas, a huge assortment of Chinese food, and an entire salad bar stuffed with everything from tomatoes to chocolate pudding. Everyone was really enjoying their food, and a nice long break from their hard work. While Ari and Gibbs went and got food for them and her, she went around the room and visited with different groups working on different aspects of the project. When the food was finally brought to a table set up for her, she wandered over to Gibbs and Ari and gratefully sat down in the comfortable chair they had brought over for her. She thanked them both for bringing her some long awaited food.

"So Gibbs, I hate to talk business during lunch, but I think you understand. How long will it take you to interrogate these armed guys we picked up this morning? I want to know if they are for real or if they were a distraction. If for real, are we dealing with a second cell? If so, how did they get information on the transfer?"

"Anything else you want to know, while I'm at it?"

"Ha,ha Gibbs. Such a cute question. You know I want to know everything, I'm a nosy bitch. Haven't you heard? Seriously, you know what we need to know and will get it for us. Mostly, right now I wanted to know how long it is going to take you to get the information."

"Why?"

"Because I want the three of us to do recon work tonight. We'll be sitting on the cell, relieving Michael, Ziva, and Tony. They are placing cameras and audio. Then after a while, we will go in and cover it until the last cell member shows up. What do you think?"

"I think this is good. Tonight and tomorrow night? Then take them down tomorrow after they are all in?"

"That was my thinking. They all are killed except the leaders. If they survive, they go to Guantanomo."

"What do you two think?"

"Baby, this is your op. We follow your lead."

"Yes, but you guys are experts too. I want to hear your thoughts. Something else we should be doing given our time frame?"

"Really, given our time frame, this is a good plan. We should have bomb squad silent support, and back up tactical."

"I'll arrange it."

"And how are you going to get from the stakeout back to MTAC?"

"You two are really going to make me sit this one out?"

Both men together gave a solid "Yes!"

"Ok, fine. We go with this plan. I'll have secret service detail take me from the site to MTAC. They'll be armed too. No one knows about the hit except the three of us, and I'll tell Tony later today. We have a leak gentleman. The two of you are the only ones I trust. Ok?"

"Got it. What time do you want me to be done with the interviews today?"

"No later than 7. We should plan on being there until 2 at least. We'll sleep in MTAC when we get done."

"Ari, in the meantime, you know what you need to do. Michael will get his instructions for this afternoon as well. Be sure to be done by 6:00. We go into lockdown after that. Katie is packing for all four of us, if that is ok with you."

"Sure, that would be a big help."

"Jethro, should I tell people about what happened with Jenny? Will they hate me?"

"You need to tell them, the whole truth. Some might hate you, but those that matter won't."

"What about the baby? I'm not going to be in the firefight, and I've been in all the others. Shouldn't I tell them why?"

"Faith, it is need to know only. You being pregnant makes you a bigger target, and I simply can't have that. It is kept between the three of us as well. You'll have the baby on the island or in some anonymous French hospitals like movie stars. No one here is to know. Ari?"

"I totally agree with Gibbs. If people find out, they may even think it is mine. The three of us together have enough enemies to fill a navy freighter. Best to keep it a very closely guarded secret, just like before.

"OK, here goes my loves."

"Excuse me, everyone. As you are winding up your lunches, I wanted to update you on a few things. This operation that we are working on is sanctioned at the highest levels of government, so what we have you working on is critical to national security. Our timeframe has only 4 days left, the target is the Secretary of Defense Annual Ball. We learned about plans to use a toxin, and intercepted the toxin

yesterday. An attempt was made to reacquire the toxin earlier this morning, which thanks to Col. Benton's planning and ever-vigilant Marines the attempt failed. We have the would-be hijackers in custody and Special Agent Gibbs will interview them this afternoon."

"It is important for you to know that we are dealing with one, possibly two cells, a possible leak within our own organization, and now that the poisoning attempt has probably failed, we have to be aware of other potential devices that could devastate the party. Share no information with anyone outside your small groups. Some of you have been asked to provide information for my eyes only. As for the party, many of you will be asked to attend the SecDef's ball to provide additional eyes and ears. I will invite you personally. I hope you have something appropriate to wear, and plan to bring it with you tonight. It is black tie gentlemen, and we will provide well-fitted tuxedos for those that don't have them- well fitted black only, no powder blue or ruffles. It is not prom night." There was quite a bit of laughter at that comment. "Those of you in the military can of course wear your dress uniforms. The President may end up being here so only the tip top of clothing. And ladies, floor length gowns only. If the ladies don't have anything appropriate to wear, see me. I'll approve all dresses ahead of time and provide alternatives if I feel it is required. Bring your dresses tonight, along with uniforms and tuxes. We won't be leaving the building again until the threat is neutralized for certain or the night of the Ball. I'm sorry, but spouses cannot come. It is too dangerous and we are working. Please make my apologies. We have only one shot at this, we have to make it count. I need everyone working very hard, around the clock, on the right thing. If you aren't sure it is the right thing, ask Gibbs or myself. When you come to an appropriate stopping place in your work today, you can go home for an hour and pack a bag. Check in and out with Cynthia. No phone calls, no computer time while you are off base. Bring your toothbrush and a sleeping bag too. 1800 hours, except for a few special ops, we are in shut down until the Ball. Don't miss it. I will have to personally approve your reentry, and honestly I'm disinclined to do so which means you would be fired from NCIS or whatever branch of the military you work for."

"Are there any questions?"

"What happened to Director Shepherd? Are you the new Director of NCIS?"

"First of all, I have no plans to take on the job of Director of NCIS. There are other challenges in my future. As for Director Shepherd, she had choices to make regarding the cooperation with the resources for this operation, and the SecNav felt she chose poorly. There is a temporary Director assigned to handle the operations upstairs, but they are not authorized for any of these operations. If anyone asks you questions about what is going on or what we are doing, direct them to me."

"Now that you and Agent Gibbs, and it looks like Ari Hasawari have hooked up in some kind of threesome, will Agent Gibbs be leaving NCIS?"

Faith looked at both Ari and Gibbs, which gave her back a completely blank expression. She whispered a 'thanks guys' to them and turned back to the crowd.

"You guys are starting to sound more like tabloid reporters, than scientists and investigators. I strongly suggest that you return your focus to the work at hand. I really don't have time for course correction at

this point in the game. If I have to take time for any kind of course correction, you won't enjoy it. If you aren't working on the right thing fast enough, we will have a private conversation. Lunch is over. Clean it up and get back to work."

"Thank you for your time, everyone. You can make requests for dinner and breakfast with Cynthia."

"Tony, McGee. I believe you have some information for me?"

"Yes, Boss"

Faith followed them to their desks and retrieved the information they had compiled for her. "This is all the financial accounts, including whatever off-shore accounts we could find, customs records, country records, computer tracking, phone call tracking and Michael's military records."

She addressed McGee. "Did you see anything surprising? What about cell activity recently? "

"Nothing that stands out, Faith. They aren't choirboys by any stretch, but we already knew that. Ari's account holdings have been frozen in off shore accounts. I can only imagine that is because they don't know where he is and in an effort to force him into the clear, they have frozen his accounts. And Michael's are just what one would expect from a marine, not a really rich individual. There were no extra funds anywhere I could find. The phone angle is worthless since they could just get prepaid phones that are untraceable.

"Ok, thanks guys. McGee I want you with Abby tracing phone and computer traffic. I also want you working on these guys we have in holding. Where is their dossier? Or at least their leaders'? You have an hour before Gibbs starts to interview. I need to talk to Tony alone now Tim. Thank you."

After being dismissed McGee walked away more than a little frustrated. Faith then started to brief Tony on what would be required of him. "Tony, you Ziva and Michael will go out and set up cameras, optical heat and voice sensing if you can. Go under as yard personnel trimming the row of trees alongside the building housing our cell, once you are done tree trimming, drive away and come back in a different truck you can park down the street. I want to keep track of who is coming and going, and of course what they are saying. You'll need complete voice operated computer linked equipment. Ziva can interpret into the microphone and computer, and I can hear and see everything at MTAC. We will relieve you about 1900 hours. Same drill tomorrow, but the current need to know only plan is to attack after 0200. No one, not even Ziva and Michael need to know right now. Ok? I'll be directing the attack from MTAC. "

"You are the best shot we have Faith. How can you not participate? And you suspect someone really close to operations. That is why you are segmenting all information."

"Tony, I would love to tell you but it is definitely need to know. "

"What about away from the firefight, as a sniper? I've seen your dossier, you are one of the top ten in the world."

"I wouldn't go that far, Tony. But I am also pregnant. Ari and Gibbs are adamant about me not being in this firefight, or any firefight, even being in the van. So while I am running this op, there are still those who have a great deal of input. Tony, I just gave you information that puts Gibbs, Ari, and I in extreme danger, murdering or kidnapping me being the top two dangers. Can you I trust you to keep this secret? I'm not even telling Ziva right now. There is too much risk to me and to the operation. We have a leak, Tony. I don't know who it is, but I don't believe it is you, or Ziva for that matter. But we have to assume it is someone close to us."

"I will guard your secret, and you, with my life. I swear. Is it Gibbs' or Ari's? Not that it matters."

"You still distrust Ari and blame him for Caitlyn. I understand. But this baby is definitely Gibbs'."

"He is a good man and he deserves to be happy. You make him happy, and this baby must make him ecstatic."

"It does, but we cannot show it yet. Thank you Tony. Get your crew together and get started. I'll be watching from MTAC. God Speed Tony. Lead well."

* * *

**Chapter 18: Faith is save by the angels**

* * *

I Spy

Chapter 18

Faith is Saved by the Angels

Faith spent the next hour inviting people to the ball, arranging for the tuxedos and dresses, as well as hair and nail people. She also arranged for bomb squad and back up attack squad. She was experiencing some kind of cognitive dissonance. She would go back to the days of relative peace and quiet of the spy world forever for a chance at something a little simpler.

As she was taking a little breather in her office for a few moments, her phone rang with Katie's ringtone. She answered it thinking that Katie probably had some questions about what to take. "Hey sweetie. What's up?"

Katie was on the other end of the line, but talking fast and out of breath. She was clearly upset about something. "Someone has been in the house. The secret service guys and I were having an early lunch before I started packing everything. When I went into your room everything was wrong. It just wasn't like I had left it. Your perfume had been touched, your lingerie and clothing had all been handled, and it all smelled strange. I brought the guys in and they picked up on it right away, someone had been jerking off in your room. It was all over your bed and your clothes, your lingerie and underwear has been destroyed. It's just awful."

Faith fought the nausea threatening her stomach. "Were any of the other rooms disturbed? Ari's or Michael's or was it just Gibbs and my room?"

"Well that room is really yours, Gibbs and Ari's, but no, none of the other rooms showed any evidence of disturbance. And the briefcases are still here. What do you want to do?"

"Have the secret service document it, and do whatever it is they do. Certainly run DNA on it. Do NOT turn it over to Metro. If the secret service doesn't have the facilities to take care of this, we will handle it at NCIS. And Katie, have my personal shopper get me some more clothes. You'll have to describe what needs to be replaced. Start setting the alarm 100 percent of the time, even with the secret service there. And tell them I think they should send more guards on the house. Or better yet, let me talk to them. Before you pass me over to them, you'll have to gather everything that has been soiled and destroy it. Don't just throw it away, burn it in the fire pit out back. Is all my jewelry still there?

"The safe hasn't been touched. I don't know the codes on the briefcases but they feel full."

"Ok, thanks for taking care of this. I'm sorry you such shitty jobs sometimes. Make the secret service guys help since they were slacking off which allowed it to happen in the first place."

"Faith, you are the one who gets the shitty jobs. Look at what you have to do now. Here is David. Talk to you later."

"David. What does the secret service plan to do about a) protecting my home since obviously there has been a break in right under their noses and b) investigating what was done."

"Ms. Worthington, I can understand how distressing this can be."

"Yes, yes, blah blah. Answer my questions in a timely and accurate manner David."

"We will double coverage around the clock. Trust me, our guys got reemed by the Director of FBI himself when he found out."

"Not nearly as 'reemed' as they will be when I drag their ass down here to NCIS, or when Special Agent Gibbs or Agent Ari find out about this. This seems like a specific attack on me, David. Are you and your associates not supposed to be protecting me and mine? Pretty poor job of it today I would say. Tell me about the investigation. Is this something I will have to handle with my already overburdened resources, or will your people handle the investigation, find the interloper, etc.?"

"Yes, m'am. Everything has been documented and investigators have been assigned. We will keep you directly informed of anything we learn."

"Thank you David. The most precious asset in that house is Katie. She doesn't need to know this, but kidnapping is a great threat to her. Keep her safe. If someone keeps feeling the need to jack off on my clothes, I'll just keep buying more clothes, and eventually catch him in the act, cut his equipment off and feed it to him. Don't think I can't or won't do it. But Katie, she is irreplaceable to me. Guard her with your life. Good afternoon David."

And with that Faith hung up. So much for her breather. She made a quick conference call to Ari and Gibbs explaining what had happened and what was being done about it. Gibbs flipped and became very agitated. "Gibbs listen to me. We weren't there, nobody got hurt, clothes are replaceable. I already told Katie to burn in all."

Ari piped in too, ever the voice of reason. "It sounds like the guy left plenty of DNA around, so they may even catch him quickly. And the secret service is going to be even more convinced that there is a credible threat against you. They are likely to step up their coverage all the way around."

"On our bed though. That is sacred."

"Gibbs, Ari, I'll buy us a new bed. Frame up, brand new. And we can make it sacred again. Let's go back to our job and move forward. I hate this job by the way gentlemen. I can't think of anything that could convince me to do it again. Have a nice day. I love you both.

Michael appeared at her door, where she motioned him through the glass door and into the room that was acting as her private office. With the glass, she felt in a fishbowl, but at least she could see what everyone was doing.

"Where have you been all day, Michael?"

"I was around here helping where I could, went to see some contacts, this and that."

"Learn anything?"

"Not really."

"Hm. Not really or Not?"

"Not."

"Ok, you go out with Tony and Ziva at 1400 hours. Tony has probably been frantically looking for you and getting his stuff squared away. From now on, you are on a specific task assigned by either myself or Gibbs. No more leaving the building. We will be on lockdown after 1800 hours tonight. Katie will be bringing your dress uniform and other clothes and supplies to you before 1800 hours. Here is the address of the forger. He is expecting you. Payment has already been taken care of. Tony knows you have a single errand to run that should take one hour while you are out of the building on detail."

"Don't you want to know our plan?"

"No, I don't. Not from you, not from Ari."

"I'm not bringing Katie with me. I don't love her."

"I knew this was coming, you son of a bitch. You really have become the bastard I accused you of being. When do you plan to tell her, or are you just leaving that to me?"

"It's going to fall to you baby sister. "

"If she wants to come, I am bringing her to the island with me."

"Whatever. How can you be fucking both of them? You have become the ultimate whore."

"Excuse me?" Faith was shocked and outraged.

"Letting both of them touch you, come inside you. Who gets sloppy seconds? Neither of them will settle for that long term. They'll both leave you, and then what? You'll dry up like some old whore without a man. You were made for a man, a real man."

"If Jethro and Ari are not real men, then who do you see taking their place?" He had blocked her way to the door. Besides he was her brother, who would suspect he might try to harm her? There was no panic button, but she reached around her belt as she put her hands on her hips, and speed dialed #1, Gibbs' number. She only hoped he answered and could hear what was going on.

"Me, of course. I was your first and your last. You'll see. I heard you telling the team about our first excursion into the world of orgasms and blowjobs. You loved getting it from me, you even said I was world class. That is better than the two you currently fuck. We belong together, Faith. We belonged together when we were 15 and 16, and we belong together now."

Until now, their voices had been at a quiet venomous hiss. She had been trying to save his reputation and her own life. But now, Faith knew it was time for help.

She loudly and very authoritatively, yelled, "Man UP, Soldier! It is time for you to leave this office, now.

Even the people downstairs were starting to notice there was trouble going on upstairs in the glass office. Tony was watching in horror as Michael made a move towards Faith, aggressively pinning her to the wall. Michael seemed oblivious to what was going on around him, obsessively focused on one person, his sister. Gibbs and Ari were running down the hallway, while the secret service detail entered the room.

At her command to leave the office, and hence leave her, Michael shoved her against the wall, ripping her clothing, forcing their mouths together, tearing her shirt and bra off of her reaching down to suckle at her breasts. He held a shining, sharp knife at her neck holding her still and keeping anyone from doing anything rash. Gibbs motioned the secret service out of the room so they could strategize. There was no viable position from inside the room anyway. They decided that Gibbs and Ari would try to talk Michael off of her, and Ziva was already positioning herself already to take the sniper kill shot. She had started to prepare for that as soon as she had seen Michael hoist himself against Faith.

When Ari and Gibbs entered the room, Faith was partly relieved and a lot horrified to be found in this position. She was terrified of rape, utterly immobilized with fear, and this rape would be at the hands of her own brother, witnessed by her two lovers. But Gibbs and Ari would never allow that. They would protect her and her baby no matter what. Michael seemed unaware of Gibbs' and Ari's entrance to the room. Instead he continued to work his mouth down her body covering every inch of her torso with his tongue.

"Please Michael, don't do this." Instead of responding verbally to her request he just pressed the knife harder against her artery, causing small droplets of blood to ooze out and streak down her bare chest.

Ari spoke up, careful to stay out of the kill zone, and not wanting to cause him to become more aggressive, he stayed on the other side of the room. "Hey buddy. What the hell is going on here? This is Faith. Your beloved Faith, your sister you couldn't wait to get home to. What are you doing with a knife to her throat?"

"Stay away Ari. You too Gibbs. She is mine now. I was her first and now I will be her last, or perhaps she will be my last. The two of you have turned her into your own personal whore for your own use. Sleeping with and fucking two men. It's unconscionable. I thought what she and I had done as teenagers was sinful, but this is just evil. One of you will always get sloppy seconds. Do you really want to be chasing after the other one's dick? Even for Faith?"

In their ears, Ziva indicated that she had the shot and Gibbs gave her the unobserved, slight hand signal.

Ari continued talking even as Michael cut the belt loose from her pants and slid the second knife he had through her pants and panties, cutting them loose from her lower body. "Michael, Gibbs and I both love Faith. It isn't evil to love another, in our case, Faith is very much loved by two men, two respected and honorable men. Michael, you are a Marine. You are supposed to be one of the respected and honorable men. These are not the actions of a brave, respected, and honorable marine. "

Gibbs was getting impatient wondering when the kill shot was coming, and both men were starting to panic in their gut at the amount of blood Faith was starting to lose. Piercing the artery was a seriously life threatening event.

"Michael, we need to get Faith to the hospital. You have nicked her artery and she is going to bleed out…"

A crash of glass and Michael fell over and away from Faith, a clean and neat little hole in his head. There had been no attempt at a lesser shot, and that was just fine with everyone. The shot had blown him away from Faith and pulled the knife away from her as well.

Gibbs reached Faith first, yelling for Ducky who was waiting in the hallway. Ari was tearing off his shirt to cover her body. It quickly wicked up the blood that was already soaking her torso. Ducky rushed to Faith's side and quickly bandaged the wound, calling for the ambulance to Bethesda. He thought the bandage would hold well enough, but she was going to need surgery. They agree that Ducky would ride in the ambulance with Faith, and Ari would follow behind. Gibbs would reluctantly stay behind since he was the only leadership face everyone knew, and people needed reassurance and continuity. Ari would call with constant status reports, and if Faith was going to die, he would call immediately giving Gibbs the chance to get there beforehand. Gibbs reminded both Ari and Ducky as they are closing the doors to the ambulance to be sure she receives the last rites, for her and the baby before she goes into surgery.

The secret service had warned Bethesda and they were in full alert mode. She went straight into surgery, surgeons were already prepped and had spoken to Ducky. They had also been told that she was pregnant and that should be a consideration. She would not want any risks taken with the baby. A priest was waiting in the ambulance bay doors to emergency prepared to give the last rites for both her and her baby, but everyone hoped that would not be the case. She had already lost a lot of blood and Ari's shirt was covered and literally stuck to her. They had to cut it off of her and once that was done, the state of her other clothes begged the question if she had been raped. Ducky was able to reply confidently that no, she had not been. And that her attacker was now in his morgue.

Back at NCIS, Gibbs gathered the horrified troops, explained what had happened, and that Faith was in critical condition on her way to Bethesda. He did not identify the sniper by name, but several people were already gossiping about it. That just pissed him off more than he already was. "Listen up people. I need you to step up. Faith needs it, and our government needs it. She explained the urgency of the situation, and I won't revisit that. You are all intelligent people. We still have two cells to deal with, a

possible leak, and you each have your assignments that you had an hour ago. Get back to work. I don't want to hear any gossip about what happened, why Michael attacked Faith, or who took him out. I have told you what there is to tell. Speculation does not help Faith or the people counting on us for the ball. So, back to work. Everyone. And if you are so inclined, offer up a prayer for Faith. She needs it right now."

Tony and Ziva came up to Gibbs after his speech to the troops. He pulled them into an empty room so they could talk openly. Ziva had tears in her eyes, apologizing for not taking the shot earlier. Maybe it wouldn't have been so bad for Faith. She explained that once he started on her lower torso, it was harder to get the shot and not hit either her or Gibbs. Gibbs cursed that he had inadvertently moved into the kill zone.

"Ziva, you got him. It is all good. He can never hurt her again. And the wound is bad, dying kind of bad, but it was bad from the moment he delivered it. He knew exactly what he was doing. He knew he would be killed, and he wanted her dead too. He just wanted to rape her first."

Ziva gave him a horrified look. "Faith is absolutely terrified of being raped. It's come close to happening a couple of times, and she either killed them, or turned to stone. That IS her biggest fear. More than even torture. I wonder if Michael knew that?"

"I don't know. But he was obsessed with her, there was no doubt. Some of the stuff I heard him say to her was horrible. I know this is asking a lot, but do you think the two of you can do the job this afternoon?"

They both looked at each other and back at Gibbs. "We are on it Boss. We'll even take your and Ari's shift. Faith can't be left alone. I guess Ari is with her now?"

"Yeah, no one really knows him here, nor should they, so I got the short straw. I'd like to go to her, but Tony if you stay out all night, there won't be anyone here I can leave in charge. There is a dearth of leadership within NCIS as evidenced in this situation."

"Have McGee bring Ziva and I some food, we'll eat and brief McGee, and I'll come back here and you can go to her. Even if people are staying around the clock, most are going to be sleeping during that time, even if they are just sleeping in shifts. You could also call Col. Mann or Col. Benton."

"Good idea Di'Nozzo. Col. Benton could handle this, and he is so in love with Faith he hardly knows which way is up. I would never put Mann in here, she hates Faith and would set out to destroy the work she has done. Tony, it isn't that I don't think you could do this, because I know you could. It's that I don't think McGee could cover for you. It's too dangerous to put Ziva in that situation. She needs her partner. But I will have him bring you food."

They all laughed at that and left to make the arrangements.

After several hours of pacing for Ari, the surgeons finally came out with a positive prognosis. They had had to provide several pints of blood to her, but ultimately had stopped the bleeding and her health as well as the baby's seemed just fine.

"When can I see her?"

"Are you family?"

Ari looked at Ducky and said, "I'm as close as one can get."

The doctor looked into Ari's chocolate brown eyes swimming with love and pain, and then looked at Ducky who gave a positive nod of his head, and led Ari to the recovery room Faith was in. He was shocked at how pale she was, and it seemed that she had shrunk in the last few hours. Her bones were showing through her chest and neck, and her usually strong arms seemed like little sticks. The doctor came in behind Ari. "She looks more fragile than she is. It is the blood loss. A few more hours and certainly by the morning, she will look more like her normal self. She'll need to stay a few days."

"Why?"

"She has had a huge trauma, lost lots of blood, and someone attempted to rape her, although apparently he is dead. And she is pregnant. She has been through enough that a lesser woman would have already lost the baby. I am going to prescribe bed rest for her for a month at least."

Ari rubbed his forehead as a headache set in. "Two days ago she was shot. While she had on body armor, she was hit in the head and the chest. It was extremely painful. She never complained and never took a pain pill till she got home that evening. Even so, she completed the burial of her brother, started a top secret operation where she has been ordered to complete an almost impossible mission, threw a party and today was very close to being raped, which is by far her biggest fear, and was stabbed by her brother. She will never stay in the hospital because she is injured. There are very important people relying on her to complete her mission. And there are other people trying to kill her. So what if we arranged for her to go back to NCIS where the operation is headquartered and that she laid on a nice soft couch and never got up for anything except to go to the bathroom, and she ran the ops from there?"

Gibbs strolled in the curtained room and asked, "What do you say to that doc? If we could guarantee that, could she go home tomorrow?"

"Who are you?"

"Her other significant other."

"Which one of you is the father of the baby?"

Gibbs looked at Ari, a silent look of pain and shared goodwill passing between them. "I am." At the doctor's look at the two of them, he spoke up. "Don't ask. It is complicated. Trust that we both love her and she loves us. More than that becomes classified anyway."

"Ok. I am still very concerned about the baby. As I told Ari, it is a wonder she hasn't lost the baby yet with everything she has been through today, and then when he filled in the other days, it is truly a miracle child. If she leaves the hospital, the chances of her losing the baby becomes almost certain."

A dry, crackly voice spoke up from the bed. "I will not risk our child Jethro. Either they find someone else to lead this crap assignment, I don't care whose life is at stake, or they pay to bring MTAC to me here. I do the whole thing from one of the luxury penthouse suites you have upstairs, Doctor. You can monitor me and the baby the whole time."

"How stressful would that be?"

"Less stressful than having to be there. It might be kinda fun. I can simply give an order and hang up. I like that. Can I have some water?"

"No, but you can have some ice chips. I'll get one of the nurses to bring you some."

The doctor left for a few moments, and they all started talking at once. Finally, Faith soften her voice to the point of a whisper and everyone else stopped talking. "This is the part where you both are supposed to be cooing over my being alive and not being raped. Then you tell me what happened since I wasn't very alert there near the end. Then Gibbs goes and calls the SecDef from my phone so it is his direct line and tells him what has happened and our plan to move forward. I assume you must have something in operation at NCIS or you wouldn't be here. You can tell him about setting up a mini MTAC here at the hospital, or putting you in charge, or tasking someone else with completion of the job. Do you care which of those options we end up with?"

The doctor and nurse returned with ice chips, which helped Faith's fading voice. Even though they were there, they continued the conversation.

"I really don't care. The three of us know we will be retiring soon, so if they want to give it to someone else, good riddance. But I think they are going to want you to stay in charge, even if it is from a hospital bed."

"Well, that is very flattering, but I want a contingent of secret service and everyone vetted and searched before crossing my threshold. I want my guns and knives here with me in my room. I will never allow what happened today happen again. No one gets near me and my baby again. That goes for doctors and nurses too."

"Agreed. How about we do this in reverse order of what you suggested. I'll call the SecDef and the Secretary of State since you are so close to him, they can both make the decision, Ari can tell you what happened, and then we will both come and coo over you. Sounds like a damn bird."

"Oh Jethro, it is a good thing you can be so charming cause you are not very romantic, especially over the wounded woman carrying your child."

Ari gave his deep soft chuckle and Gibbs hit him on the back of the head. "Who's side are you on Ari?"

"Faith's, Gibbs. Always with Faith."

* * *

**Chapter 19: Chapter 19**

* * *

Dear readers: Thank you for reading this story. I apologize but this muse's muse has fallen down the rabbit hole with nary a hair left behind to complete the story. Each incomplete story will be marked as completed and AS IS since I hate leaving so many incomplete stories behind. Thank you again and you might check out some of my other stories. Cavalier Queen


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